Push coming to return ODI World Cup to 14-team competition

We believe that better 50-over teams will improve the test environments as well, and we just think that is cricket logic. Warren Deutrom Chief executive of Cricket Ireland

The men’s ODI World Cup could increase from 10 to 14 teams under major plans to reform the competition and help globalise the sport.

The number of teams in the 50-over World Cup was controversially reduced to 10 at the 2019 tournament and the competition is planned to remain a 10-team affair for the 2023 event. But support is growing for it to be expanded to 14 countries from 2027.

The number of sides will be debated at a chief executives’ committee meeting later this month, which will also discuss the global calendar and the 2023-31 cycle. Other reforms could also see the number of matches in the ODI Super League increase. It is also expected that the T20 World Cup will expand to 20 teams during the next cycle, as previously revealed by Telegraph Sport.

The rise in support for increasing the number of teams in the ODI World Cup is driven by a belief that standards in the emerging game have increased and a more inclusive event would help galvanise interest in cricket around the world. There are now 12 Full Members, meaning that at least two will fail to qualify for each 10-team event. Recent progress in the US — long identified as a crucial market for the sport — also makes a more inclusive event more attractive.

There were previously 16 teams in the 2007 World Cup, with the number reduced to 14 in 2011 and 2015. The cuts were driven by commercial reasons, with broadcasters aghast after India and Pakistan were eliminated in the first stage of the 2007 tournament by Bangladesh and Ireland.

In place of the current format, which sees the 10 competing countries play each other in a 45-game round-robin stage before the knockouts, the proposed expansion is likely to revert to two groups of seven teams before the knockout stages. However, there is a desire for the pool stages to be snappier, with more days featuring multiple games — a day game and a day-night match.

Warren Deutrom, the chief executive of Cricket Ireland, said that expanding the World Cup was essential to growing the sport in emerging nations.

“Cricket Ireland still believes that 10 teams in a 50-over World Cup is too few. We think that is one of those elements that is a real problem for the game,” Deutrom said.

“You could probably successfully argue that as a result of performances in the 50-over World Cup, the likes of Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Ireland — and to a lesser extent Afghanistan — have become Full Members,” Deutrom added. “Those are huge opportunities, and the game risks them at its peril.”

Earl Eddings, the chairman of Cricket Australia, recently said, “we need 10-20 strong test-playing nations” and Deutrom believes that a larger 50-over World Cup is essential to boosting global competitiveness in the other formats.

“We believe that better 50-over teams will improve the test environments as well, and we just think that is cricket logic,” he said.

The previous format for a 14-team World Cup saw the top four teams in each pool progressing to the quarter-finals but it was felt leading sides in the pool stages were insufficiently rewarded.

— Telegraph Group UK