The ICC emerged from its annual conference in Edinburgh last week with a package of format proposals spanning every major format: semi-finals for the World Test Championship, a reduction in the ODI World Cup from 14 teams to 12, an expanded T20 super stage, a World Club T20 competition, and fewer white-ball bilateral series. None has been formally approved. All five point in the same direction.
With broadcaster renegotiations approaching, the ICC wants more India versus Pakistan matches inside its own tournaments. India and Pakistan do not play each other outside ICC events. Every proposal that came out of Edinburgh either creates more fixtures between the two sides or places those fixtures inside more commercially valuable competition rounds. BBC Sport reported the Edinburgh discussions on Tuesday, citing multiple sources inside the meetings. No ICC official or member board has publicly confirmed anything.
ICC considering some key changes to global game:
– Introduction of WTC semi-finals.
– 50-over World Cup cut to 12 teams.
– ‘Super 10 phase’ in T20 World Cup.
– Developing a ‘World Club T20’ for domestic franchise sides sooner rather than later.
More: https://t.co/MGfaCiC0kz— Timothy Abraham (@TimothyAbraham) July 14, 2026
Abraham posted his summary of the proposals from his verified X account on July 14. No official ICC statement on any of the proposals has been made at time of publication.
The WTC semi-finals idea is the most structurally significant proposal in the package. Under the current format, nine teams compete across a two-year cycle and the top two qualify for the final. The proposal that gained traction in Edinburgh would expand qualification to the top four, with two semi-finals played before the final. The ICC’s stated reasoning is greater jeopardy and more motivation for teams in the middle of the table to stay invested across the full two years. No formal proposal has been tabled yet, and the separate plan to expand the WTC to 12 teams to include Afghanistan, Ireland and Zimbabwe has also made no formal progress, with expansion now considered extremely unlikely for the next FTP cycle.
Ben Stokes, who has retired from international cricket since making these remarks, was speaking as England captain in the week of the 2025 WTC Final at Lord’s when he made his feelings about the current format clear:
“I can’t remember if I’ve ever even given any real time to be specifically thinking about the World Test Championship to be honest because it’s utterly confusing.”
Ben Stokes, England captain, June 2025
That admission does more work than any ICC review document. If a Test captain is not following the competition he is playing in, the format has a problem that goes beyond awareness. Semi-finals address part of that problem. A team sitting fourth with six months left in a two-year cycle currently enters a quiet, unannounced drift. Selection committees do not hold a press conference about it. But rested players stay rested, younger players get extended runs, and the current cycle gradually becomes preparation for the next one. Semi-finals end that drift, because fourth place still qualifies.
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What semi-finals do not fix is the structural inequality that made the 2025 WTC Final the most criticized edition of the competition so far. South Africa won the title having played 12 Tests across the two-year cycle. England played 22. Australia and India each played 19. South Africa reached the final at Lord’s without once facing either Australia or England during the league stage.
Semi-finals change who qualifies for the knockout rounds. They do not change who plays whom, how many times, or against what level of opposition during the two-year league phase. A team can still construct a WTC campaign across a lighter schedule, finish fourth, and then meet a side in the semi-final that spent two full years grinding through the hardest bilateral series in the game. Ashes, Border-Gavaskar, India versus England — five-Test series that take a physical toll on squads that wins against lower-ranked opposition cannot replicate. The calendar structure is a negotiation between boards and the ICC cannot impose it. That negotiation has not moved. Adding a knockout stage on top of an unequal league phase gives the competition more visible drama without fixing why that drama feels unearned.
The ODI World Cup proposal has drawn the most immediate reaction. Cutting from 14 teams to 12 reverses the commitment the ICC made in 2021, when the governing body announced expansion after two consecutive 10-team editions in 2019 and 2023. Under the proposed 12-team format, a Super Seven second stage would replace the existing Super Six structure. Only two teams, not four, would progress from the global qualifying tournament. For associate nations that built entire qualification campaigns around four available spots, that is a direct setback. For players with 2027 World Cup ambitions already mapped out, the format of the tournament they are preparing for could look entirely different from what was announced.
One senior administrator in associate cricket described the proposed reduction in comments reported by the Cricket Financial Journal on Tuesday:
“It would be disgusting if that happens. Another step back for cricket after it seemed like progress was being made.”
Senior administrator, associate cricket, Cricket Financial Journal, July 14, 2026
The T20 World Cup is set for its own structural adjustment, with the current super eight phase proposed to expand to a super ten. The ICC is also moving closer to a World Club T20 competition that would bring the top domestic franchise teams from different countries together, modelled on football’s FIFA Club World Cup. One source told BBC Sport the event could launch within the next couple of years if a calendar window can be found. A global gathering of franchise executives is scheduled for later this year. White-ball bilateral series are expected to decrease after the next FTP cycle, replaced by inter-continental quadrangular tournaments likely featuring two teams from each full member region.
England, India and Australia have already locked in their key fixtures for the 2027-2031 FTP. The rest of the full members have not yet finalised their schedules. An August meeting is pencilled in to work through the remaining calendar, with a final review in September.
Not everything discussed in Edinburgh is progressing. ODIs will remain 50 overs, with any reduction to 40 overs not imminent despite reports ahead of the conference. The ODI World Cup Super League, which ran from 2020 to 2023 and guaranteed associate nations fixtures against full members, will not return. The ICC has encouraged full members to schedule more matches between their A-sides and associate nations in both white-ball formats as an alternative.
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