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Brandon Moyo in BULAWAYO
OVER the past years, Zimbabwe has been given opportunities by the International Cricket Council (ICC) to host various global tournaments, with the latest being the recently concluded 2023 Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifiers.
Last year, the country hosted the Men’s T20 World Cup Global Qualifier B and in 2018 hosted the World Cup Qualifiers for the 2019 edition of the global show-piece.
After successfully hosting the 2023 qualifiers, Zimbabwe’s focus now shifts to more global tournaments that are lined up. In the coming years, Zimbabwe is set to host two major international events.
In 2026, the country will co-host the Under-19 World Cup with Namibia and the following year, the Men’s Cricket World Cup will be staged in Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa with the three Southern African nations co-hosting the global show-piece.
Speaking as the curtain came down on the 2023 World Cup qualifiers, Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) chairperson, Tavengwa Mukuhlani said Zimbabwe was looking forward to the next two events it will be hosting and was grateful to the sport’s governing body for the opportunity to host global events.
“We are very thankful to ICC for once again having confidence in Zimbabwe as a destination for ICC events. We are looking forward to the two events that are coming, the 2026 Under-19 World Cup and the main World Cup that we are jointly hosting with South Africa and Namibia.
“We would have wanted to be there (2023 World Cup in India) but we celebrated their (Sri Lanka and Netherlands) success, looking forward to more tournaments coming through,” said Mukuhlani.
The ICC Chairperson, Greg Barclay was charmed with the way things went during the World Cup Qualifiers and said that Zimbabwe is a good place to host international events.
“Zimbabwe is a great place to host tournaments, the facilities are good, the weather obviously has played its part, it has been magnificent. We have ICC events here in 2026 and 2027 so the future in terms of bringing cricket to this country is really promising and it can only get better,” said Barclay.
Zimbabwe’s hosting rights for the 2026 Under-19 World Cup were confirmed late last year as the ICC finalised the host nations for the next Under-19 men’s and women’s global events between 2024 and 2027. The 2024 Men’s Under-19 World Cup will be held in Sri Lanka.
The main World Cup in 2027 will see a growth in participation.
From the 10-team tournament that the upcoming 2023 World Cup will be, the 2027 edition will feature 14 teams. A total of 54 matches will take place
The 2027 World Cup format will have two groups of seven, with the top three in each group progressing to a Super Six stage, followed by semi-finals and final.
This is the same format that was used in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2003.
A total of 10 teams will automatically qualify for the 2027 World Cup and the 10 will comprise of South Africa and Zimbabwe as Full Member hosts while Namibia are not guaranteed a slot.
The remaining four teams will qualify via the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Global Qualifier.
Zimbabwe also co-hosted the 2003 World Cup with South Africa and Kenya in which the 14-team format was used.
ZC promised yet another amazing experience for the upcoming events.
Online Reporter