- Start
- Oct 12, 202875% CONFIDENCEsource
- End
- Nov 12, 202875% CONFIDENCEsource
2028 Men's T20 World Cup Kicks Off
- “The 2028 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup will be the eleventh edition of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, co-hosted by Cricket Australia and New Zealand Cricket from 12 October to 12 November 2028”[1]
- The ICC finalised the 12 October to 12 November window in an updated calendar shared with member boards after its Dubai meetings, reported on 23 October 2026; the pin’s earlier 21 October to 19 November window has been replaced[2]
- It will be New Zealand’s first time hosting the event; Australia had previously hosted in 2022, and the competition was first played in 2007 in South Africa[1]
- The ICC fixed Australia and New Zealand as hosts in November 2021 as part of the 2024-2031 ICC men’s hosts cycle; the tournament sits within the 2027-2031 ICC Men’s Future Tours Programme[1]
- India are the defending champions, having beaten New Zealand in the final of the tenth edition held in 2026 in India and Sri Lanka, also contested by 20 teams[1]
- A new format was announced in July 2026: 20 teams in five groups of four playing a round robin, the top two from each group going through to a Super 10 stage of two groups of five, and the top three from each Super 10 group reaching the knockouts[1]
- “For the first time in the tournament’s history, the knockout stage was expanded to feature six teams” – Super 10 group winners go straight to the semi-finals while the second- and third-placed teams play two eliminators, with two semi-finals and the final after that[1]
- The tournament has 55 matches, 30 of them in the group stage; the knockout fixtures are not yet scheduled, and the tournament closes on 12 November 2028[1]
- Qualification was confirmed in July 2026 with the Men’s T20 World Cup Global Qualifier reintroduced, having served as the third stage of the pathway until 2022[1]
- Nine teams have already qualified directly: hosts Australia and New Zealand, plus the seven that reached the Super 8 stage of the previous tournament – England, India, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the West Indies and Zimbabwe[1]
- Three more places went to the next best-ranked teams in the ICC Men’s T20I Team Rankings as on 9 March 2026 that had not finished in the top seven: Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Ireland[1]
- The last eight places come through the Global Qualifier, contested by the bottom eight teams from the previous World Cup excluding Scotland – Canada, Italy, Namibia, Nepal, the Netherlands, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and the United States – plus eight teams advancing from the regional qualifiers[1]
- Nothing else is settled: the group, Super 10 and knockout tables are all placeholders (A1-A4, X1-X5, “To be determined”), with standings ordered by points, wins, net run rate, results between tied teams and then pre-tournament T20I rankings[1]
- The pin sits at the Melbourne Cricket Ground as the lead host’s flagship ground, but neither wiki says the MCG will host any 2028 match – the article on the tournament names no venues at all, and the MCG’s own article lists its future fixtures as a 150th anniversary Australia v England Test from 11 to 15 March 2027 and some 2032 Olympic football, with no mention of 2028[1][3]
- The MCG is nevertheless the obvious candidate: a 100,024-capacity ground (95,000 seats plus 5,000 standing) in Yarra Park, East Melbourne, opened 23 September 1853, owned by the Victoria State Government through the MCG Trust and operated by the Melbourne Cricket Club, and described as the largest stadium in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere and the second-largest cricket stadium by capacity[3]
- It has hosted the tournament before, staging matches at the 2022 Men’s T20 World Cup – including India v Pakistan on 23 October 2022 before 90,293, which stands as its highest T20I crowd – as well as the 2020 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup final before a record women’s cricket crowd of 86,174 and the 1992 and 2015 Cricket World Cup finals[3]
- The ground hosted the world’s first Test match in March 1877 and the first One Day International on 5 January 1971, and is contracted to host the AFL Grand Final every year until 2059[3]