ICC reveals schedule till 2031; Men’s Champions Trophy reintroduced, World Cup expanded to a 14 team affair

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has revealed the cricket calendar for the decade. The global body has decided to reintroduce the Champions Trophy from the year 2025. It was back in 2021 that the tournament took place and was hosted by the England and wales Cricket Board. While India made it to the final, they failed to lift their second title as arch rivals Pakistan beat them comprehensively.

In the new schedule, ICC has planned to host two Champions Trophies. “An eight team Champions Trophy will be hosted in 2025 and 2029,” the statement read. “The Champions Trophy will follow previous editions with two groups of four, semi-finals and final.“

The ICC further decided to expand the World Cups from 2024. The T20 World Cup will be a 20 team affair from 2024 featuring a staggering 55 matches. On the other hand the men’s World Cup will include 14 teams from 2027. “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.“

“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,” ICC added.

India to remain hosts of ICC T20 World Cup 2021

Keeping the ravaging pandemic view, the global body is set to decide the venue of the ICC T20 World Cup with UAE being the front runner. ICC clarified that no matter the venue, BCCI will remain the host of the event which is scheduled for October later this year.

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“The ICC Board has requested management focus its planning efforts for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 on the event being staged in the UAE with the possibility of including another venue in the Middle East. A final decision on the host country will be taken later this month. The Board also confirmed that the BCCI will remain the hosts of the event regardless of where the event is played,” the statement read.

The board has also approved a new procedure for determining hosts of the global events. ICC is aiming to engage first time hosts so as to promote the game in all corners of the world. “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.“

“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, said ICC Acting Chief Executive Geoff Allardice in a statement.

“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.”

Also read:‘Had two Dukes balls in my bag but I didn’t get the chance to use them against Virat Kohli’: Kyle Jamieson

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