The 2027 Cricket World Cup for the 50-overs format will be hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia and 14 teams are expected to take part in this competition. How will the qualification process for these 14 teams work? Here’s a ready reckoner.
Unlike the 2019 and 2023 editions of the 50-over World Cup which saw only 10 teams participate in them, the 2027 edition will see a rise of four teams.
Below is a lowdown on how these 14 teams will make it to the 2027 World Cup main draw.
How will the teams qualify for the 2027 Cricket World Cup? A short answer!
The two hosts, South Africa and Zimbabwe get a direct entry into the 2027 World Cup.
12 other spots will be open for teams to qualify of which eight teams will make it to the main tournament as a result of their ICC ODI Rankings on the cut-off date. Only Full Member nations will be allowed to qualify using the aforementioned route.
What this means is that the top eight Full Member sides on the ICC Ranking charts other than the hosts, will join South Africa and Zimbabwe in the main draw.
The cut-off date for these rankings will be announced soon by the ICC.
The four remaining spots for the 2027 World Cup will be decided on the basis of five different tournaments or leagues that will be played in the lead-up to the main competition.
The five tournaments are as follows:
- Challenge League Playoff: 8 Teams (2024 in Malaysia)
- Challenge League: 12 Teams (various dates between 2023 & 2026)
- League 2: 8 Teams (various dates between 2023 & 2026)
- Qualifier Play-off: 6 Teams (2026)
- Cricket World Cup Qualifier: 10 Teams (2027)
The first four tournaments, i.e. the Challenge League Playoff, Challenge League, League 2 and Qualifier Play-off will be used to decide on the 10 teams that will feature in the Cricket World Cup Qualifier.
The top four teams out of the 10 participating in the Cricket World Cup Qualifier will make the 2027 World Cup main draw.
2027 Cricket World Cup qualifying process, an in-depth explanation
The qualification process begins with the ICC Challenge League Playoff that has a total of eight teams participating in it. The teams participating in this tournament are:
- Bahrain
- Kuwait
- Tanzania
- Saudi Arabia
- Italy
- Malaysia
- Vanuatu
- Bermuda
The four teams at the end of this competition will move into the ICC Challenge League. They will be joined by eight other teams based on their performances in the previous edition of the ICC Challenge League and the ICC World Cup Qualifier Play-off.
These eight teams which are already in the ICC Challenge League are:
- Jersey
- Papua New Guinea
- Denmark
- Hong Kong
- Kenya
- Qatar
- Singapore
- Uganda
These 12 teams in the ICC Challenge League (eight pre-qualified and four from the Challenge League Play-off) will be divided into two groups of six sides apiece and each of the teams will play against the five other teams in their group in a three-match series.
At the end of the ICC Challenge League, every team would have played 15 matches and the top side in each of the two groups will advance to the ICC Qualifier Play-off.
There will be four other teams in the ICC Qualifier Play-off making it a sum total of six sides. These four teams will make it to the ICC Qualifier Play-off through the ICC League 2.
The ICC League 2 is a competition that will see eight teams participate in a round-robin format with each team playing around 27 matches apiece. The top four teams at the end of this tournament will make the ICC World Cup Qualifier while the bottom four teams will enter the ICC Qualifier Play-off.
The eight teams playing in the ICC League 2 are:
- Netherlands
- Namibia
- Nepal
- Oman
- Scotland
- USA
- Canada
- UAE
The top four teams at the end of the ICC Qualifier Play-off round-robin, league style tournament will enter the ICC World Cup Qualifier. As mentioned earlier, they will be joined by the top four teams from the ICC League 2.
The ICC World Cup Qualifier is a 10-nation tournament with four teams coming from the ICC Qualifier Play-off and four teams entering it through the ICC League 2. The remaining two teams will be the Full Member sides who did not make it through to the World Cup as direct entrants.
The top four teams at the ICC World Cup Qualifier will make it to the main draw.
How many teams will participate in the WC 2027 qualifiers?
Other than South Africa and Zimbabwe, who will enter the tournament directly as hosts, there will be 34 other teams who will feature in the qualifiers.
Eight of these will make it to the WC based on their rankings on a particular cut-off date. This date will be decided later.
The remaining four teams will be decided from among 26 sides who will feature in the qualifiers.
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