The International Cricket Council has released the provisional dates for the 2027 Men’s ODI World Cup to be held across three nations in Africa. The quadrennial event will run from October 4 to November 21, 2027 in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia.
The Rainbow nation will host most of the matches of the tournament with Zimbabwe and Namibia hosting 10 and 3 games respectively. The dates were decided during the recent ICC annual meetings in Ahmedabad. The final schedule will be approved this July at the annual general meeting in Edinburgh. Notably, this will be the first time the Cricket World Cup will return to African continent since 2003.
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The event will expand from 10 teams to 14 teams, featuring a total of 54 matches. The teams will be divided into two groups of seven, with the top three from each group advancing to a Super Six stage before the knockouts. South Africa and Zimbabwe qualify automatically as co-hosts, but Namibia must go through the African qualifiers to secure their spot.
South Africa will host the majority of the tournament, staging at least 41 matches across eight venues. Zimbabwe will host eight to ten matches across three venues, including a new stadium currently being built in Victoria Falls. Namibia will host three matches.
The tournament will also kick off the new 2027–2031 Future Tours Programme (FTP). While the World Cup details are mostly set, the ICC is still discussing the broader cricket calendar. This includes a proposal to expand the World Test Championship to include all 12 Full Members, which will also be decided during the July meetings.
All eyes on Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma
Two of India’s key pillars, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, will be the ones to watch out for ahead of the tournament. It will be both the India captain’s last ODI World Cup but a lot will depend on their form over the next 12 months or so.
Kohli and Rohit were the leading run-scorers in the last two World Cup editions respectively but they failed to lift the coveted silverware. India were knocked out of the semi-final in 2019 by New Zealand, while Australia broke Indian hearts in the 2023 final.
India are slated to play 16 one-day matches by the end of 2026. Virat Kohli will miss the first three against Afghanistan due to an injury but he will return in time for the 3-match ODI series in England.
Rohit Sharma is expected to feature against Afghanistan on June 13, 17 and 20 as he returned to the nets earlier today for the first ODI in Dharamshala.
