Before Virat-Rohit's Last Appearance, Jay Shah's ICC Discussing Massive Change For 2027 World Cup

Jay Shah and Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma [Source: AFP]

As Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are mulling their last ODI World Cup appearance in the 2027 edition of the ICC tournament, the latest reports suggest that the apex cricket body is set to consider some big changes.

The Jay Shah-led International Cricket Council is set to change the format of the prestigious cricket tournament when less than 15 months are left for the classic battle to begin. 

ICC to increase team number in 2027 ODI World Cup after 2023

As per a report from established ESPNCricinfo journalist Tristan Lavalette, the ICC is set to reduce the competition in the tournament to 12 teams. The last edition in 2023 saw a 10-team tournament, yet after promising an increase in the number of teams, the ICC might stick to twelve.

What is distressing is the fact that the body promised a total of 14 teams in the upcoming edition. However, the latest developments from the Jay Shah-led unit indicate that two teams might not get the nod to fit the structure and format of the tournament.

All these came to the forefront after The Broadcaster made a presentation at the ICC Annual Conference in Edinburgh. Although the agenda of the meeting was not officially revealed, it was regarding the team composition in the tournament.

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Why is ICC thinking of swerving away from 14 teams to 12 teams?

There can be multiple ways to look at the decision (if taken) made by the ICC. The 12-team tournament surely hurts the chances of Associate nations, and they won’t be happy about it, yet the reduction brings better structure in the game and helps it from getting too extended. 

The 10-team edition in 2023 was a 1.5-month-long affair. Adding two more teams might just extend it to the brim of 2 months. If looked at from a revenue perspective, the reduction might sound like missing an opportunity; however, the ODI format in itself grabs a lot less attention than the T20 format.

While a T20 game is completed within 4 hours, the first innings of an ODI match takes 4 hours to complete. In this age, attention span is everything, and if the format is not going under the bus, the apex body is looking at every possible angle on how to get better business, ad revenues and attention span of the audience.

Official promise denied by the ICC?

Back on June 1, 2021, the ICC officially revealed in its global schedule for 2024-2031 that the 2027 ODI World Cup edition and the 2031 edition will comprise 14 teams. However, the reported change in the format can only be looked at through a business perspective. 

The Broadcasters want revenue and profit, and the ICC, too, through their media rights, would like to sit on cash. 

At first glance, although it looks like the move is eating away at profit, ICC is more focused on hooking the audience in a crisp tournament rather than dreading it for too long, something that happened in IPL 2026, which resulted in a TRP drop after several years.

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