ICC re-introduces Champions Trophy, adds teams to men's ODI and T20 World Cups

ICC logo (Source: Twitter)

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Tuesday (June 1) re-introduced men's Champions Trophy and expanded the number of competing teams in both the men's 50-over World Cup and T20 World Cup in the 2024-2031 cycle of events.

The 50-over World Cup will become a 14-team, 54-match event in 2027 and 2031, whilst the men's T20 World Cup will be expanded to a 20-team, 55-match event in 2024, 2026, 2028, and 2030, the ICC announced after its Board meeting.

An eight-team Champions Trophy will be played in 2025 and 2029. The ICC World Test Championship finals will be hosted in 2025, 2027, 2029, and 2031.

The ICC Women's event schedule has already been confirmed with the expansion of both the Cricket World Cup and T20 World Cup forming part of the ICC's long-term commitment to growing the women's game," ICC said in an official release.

The ICC Men's Cricket World Cup format will have two groups of seven, with the top three in each group progressing to a Super Six stage, followed by semi-finals and final. This is the same format that was used in the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2003.

The format of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup will consist of four groups of five, with the top two from each group going through to a Super Eights stage, followed by the knockout stages of semi-finals and a final. The Champions Trophy will follow previous editions with two groups of four, semi-finals and final.

The ICC Board also approved the process for determining the hosts for all Men's, Women's, and U19 events in the next cycle. The hosts for the Men's events will be decided in September following a selection process that will get underway this month. The hosting process for Women's and U19 events will commence in November and will be an opportunity to engage with a wider range of Members including first-time hosts.

ICC Acting Chief Executive Geoff Allardice in an official release said: "Having the ICC event schedule confirmed through to 2031 is a significant step forward for cricket and will form the basis of our growth strategy for the next decade.

"The revised approach to selecting hosts for our events will give us much more flexibility to grow the game and engage new fans. There is a smaller pool of countries with the infrastructure needed to host our senior Men's events which narrows the selection process. Additionally, many of our members expressed interest in hosting Women's and U19 events which gives us a great opportunity to stage events in established and emerging cricket nations.”