CAPE TOWN: The International Cricket Council (ICC) and Cricket South Africa (CSA) will jointly announce the schedule for the 2027 Men’s Cricket World Cup on October 1.
According to international cricket news website Cricbuzz, the event will mark the one-year countdown to the tournament and will also feature the release of tickets for the matches.
As per a previous report by the website, next year’s mega event is most likely to commence on October 1 and will conclude with the final on November 21.
Contrary to the previous edition, the upcoming World Cup will feature 14 teams, out of which 10 would have been confirmed ahead of the upcoming event, as the cut-off date for qualification has been set at September 30.
As per the current rankings, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Australia, England, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Bangladesh are the eight teams in line to qualify for the mega event.
Notably, as per the ICC’s qualification pathway, the top eight ranked teams by the cut-off date will earn direct qualification, but Bangladesh, placed ninth, would still make their way into the tournament, as the third-ranked South Africa earn their spot as the host nation.
Besides the Proteas, Zimbabwe are also guaranteed a spot on the virtue of being the hosts, unlike Namibia, whose qualification is not yet assured.
The remaining four teams will come through the Qualifiers, slated to be played from February 22 to March 23, and will be listed as Qualifier 1, 2, 3 and 4 in the tournament’s schedule.
Besides the match schedule, the ICC will also launch the ballot for World Cup tickets on Thursday. Although the tickets will not be available for sale immediately, it will give the fans an opportunity to register for the ballot from October 1.
The upcoming edition of the Men’s Cricket World Cup will adopt a new three-stage format aimed at creating more competitive matches and improving the experience for both players and fans.
Under the revised format, all 14 qualified teams will compete in a three-phase competition culminating in the final, with greater emphasis placed on every result from the opening stages of the tournament.
The first round will feature Teams 12, 13 and 14 competing in a round-robin ‘Super Series’, with only the top side progressing to the second round.
Round Two will consist of two groups of six teams each. The top three teams from each group, along with the highest-ranked remaining side across both groups, will advance to the Super Seven stage. From there, the top four teams will qualify for the semi-finals before the winners contest the final.