The International Cricket Council (ICC) has confirmed that the format of the Men’s ODI World Cup is not changing in terms of the number of teams in the tournament but its competitiveness and number of high-quality matches will increase thanks to a new three-stage competition.
The new format will include a short “Super Series” round in which the teams that are ranked 12th, 13th and 14th play. The three teams will play in a round robin format and the table-topper will advance to the main ICC ODI World Cup.
The remaining 12 teams and the Super Series winner will be split into two groups of six teams in the second stage. Each group will play a round-robin league, producing a total of 30 matches. The top three teams from each group, plus the third best team from both groups, will move on to the new Super 7 stage.
This Super 7 event will have a full round robin of seven teams which will play each other once. There will be 21 matches played on the stage with semi-finals for the top four teams from this stage. The top 2 will play the bottom 2 to determine the other semi-final.
The updated format adds another three games to the tournament, from the brand new 54-match edition held last year. ICC officials decided the changes would enable for better actual matches, a lesser number of early dismissals, and a more level playing field getting in to the knockout stages.