ICC adds ‘Super Series’ and ‘Super Seven’ 7 twist to 2027 ODI World Cup

The 2027 ODI World Cup, to be co-hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia, will be a 14-team event but will include a Super Series round before the group stages, and a new Super 7 before the semi-finals.

The new structure, announced by the ICC on Wednesday following the body’s Annual Conference in Edinburgh over the weekend, was introduced, the ICC said, to “enhance consequence” in the early stages.

Teams qualifying 12th to 14th will play the Super Series round. One team from the three will progress to the Group round, becoming one of 12 teams split across two groups. The top three from each group along with the next-best ranked team across both groups will then qualify for the Super 7, from which the top four go through to the semis.

A 14-team event in 2027 means the ICC sticks to a decision made in June 2021 to expand the marquee 50-team event, after 10-team events in the 2019 and 2023 editions. But the introduction of the round robin Super Series from which one team goes through, means 12 teams will play in what becomes the meat of the tournament, the group round where 30 games take place. In the original format of this event, two groups of seven would lead to a Super 6 stage, before the semis and final.

The restructure comes after concerns were expressed about the possibility of too many dead rubbers and resulting empty stadia at the ICC’s annual conference. Prompted by the number of foregone conclusions at the recent T20 World Cup and to ensure more jeopardy in the early stages of the tournament, the ICC have decided to introduce a knockout phase earlier, rather than change the number of the teams.

“The structure has been designed to strengthen the competitive narrative across every stage of the event, with matches from Round 1 and Round 2 carrying higher consequence with a highly competitive Super 7 stage witnessing 7 qualifying teams going through a round-robin stage to qualify for the semi-finals,” the ICC said.

The game has gone back and forth on the size and format of its marquee event for a number of years now; 14 teams split into groups played the 2015 World Cup (and 16 in 2011) before the move to a 10-team event in which each side played the others. In that time the T20 World Cup has become the ICC’s primary vehicle for growth but calls to expand the 50-over version have never gone away.

The final structure of the tournament, and exact fixtures, will be confirmed at an ICC meeting in September, where the next FTP will also be tabled. The distribution of fixtures at the 2027 World Cup is not expected to change, with Namibia set to host three matches, Zimbabwe between eight and 10 and South Africa, the remaining 41.

The ICC’s release made no reference to how teams will gain entry or qualify for the event. Aside from the two Full Member co-hosts, a 14-team event will likely include a combination of automatic qualifiers based on ODI rankings, and teams that come through a global qualifier (which could include lower-ranked Full Members) and teams from the World Cup Cricket League 2. A date for the global qualifier has not been set but ESPNcricinfo understands it will take place in the first-third of 2027 and is likely to be held in Namibia or South Africa.

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