2027 Cricket World Cup: What We Know About South Africa's Home Tournament

Cricket's biggest tournament is coming back to South African soil. The International Cricket Council has confirmed that South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia will jointly host the 2027 Men's Cricket World Cup, marking the first time the tournament has been played in Africa since 2003. For South African fans, that means a home World Cup is a little over a year away, and the details are starting to take shape.

Here's a rundown of what's been announced so far, from the venues and format to how teams qualify.

When and where

The tournament is expected to run from 4 October to 21 November 2027, nearly seven weeks of cricket across three countries. The ICC hasn't released a full match schedule yet, but it has confirmed the 12 host venues, and South Africa carries the bulk of the workload with eight of them.

In South Africa, matches will be played at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg, Centurion, Newlands in Cape Town, Kingsmead in Durban, St George's Park in Gqeberha, Mangaung Oval in Bloemfontein, Boland Park in Paarl and Buffalo Park in East London, renamed KuGompo City earlier in 2026. Zimbabwe adds three grounds: Harare Sports Club, Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo and the Mosi-oa-Tunya International Cricket Stadium in Victoria Falls. Namibia rounds out the list with the Namibia Cricket Ground in Windhoek, its first taste of hosting a senior ICC event.

South Africa and Zimbabwe last shared World Cup hosting duties in 2003. Namibia's involvement this time is new territory, a sign of how far the game has grown on the continent.

A bigger, different tournament

This will also be the first World Cup played under a new format. The competition expands from ten teams to fourteen, and instead of the familiar group-then-knockout structure, the ICC has built in three distinct stages.

It starts with a "Super Series", a round robin between the three lowest ranked qualifiers, with the winner earning a place in the next round. From there, twelve teams are split into two groups of six for 30 round robin matches. The top three from each group, plus the best fourth placed team across both groups, move into a seven team "Super 7" stage. Those seven play each other once more, and the top four go through to the semi finals, where first plays fourth and second plays third, with the winners meeting in the final.

All told it's 57 matches, a longer and more layered tournament than fans have seen before, built to give more teams a real shot at the knockouts while still rewarding the strongest sides with a straightforward group phase.

Who's actually going

Two spots are locked in already. South Africa and Zimbabwe qualify automatically as hosts. Beyond that, the top eight teams in the ICC Men's ODI rankings as of 31 March 2027 will also go through directly, giving ten of the fourteen places to the hosts and the world's best ranked sides.

The remaining four places will be decided through the ICC's qualification pathway, running through the Cricket World Cup League 2 and the Challenge League and funnelling into a global qualifier tournament. Namibia, despite co-hosting, still has to earn its place through this system like everyone else. West Indies and England are among the sides currently hovering right around that top eight cut-off, so the rankings race over the next several months is worth watching.

Australia arrives as defending champion, having beaten India in the 2023 final in Ahmedabad. Exactly where South Africa, England, India and the rest of the established order sit will only be locked in next year, but expect most of the usual heavyweights to be there alongside the hosts.

A South African at the helm

There's a familiar face steering the tournament from behind the scenes. Trevor Manuel, South Africa's former finance minister, chairs the 15 member organising committee that was finalised in August 2025, giving the local organisation of this World Cup some serious administrative weight.

The look and feel

The ICC unveiled the tournament's branding alongside the venues on 30 July 2026, built around the tagline "Three Nations, One Heartbeat" and the idea of "making the circle bigger", a nod to the spirit of Ubuntu. The visual identity is inspired by the shape of an African wire bowl, with a colour palette drawing on local references including Zimbabwe Chilli, Namib Dune, Harare Dawn, Fynbos pop and Two Oceans. ICC chair Jay Shah called the tournament's return to Africa "a landmark moment for cricket", while chief executive Sanjog Gupta said it would celebrate a continent "defined by extraordinary people, vibrant cultures, breathtaking experiences and deep love for sport".

Tickets and what's next

No ticket sale date has been confirmed yet. The ICC is currently only taking registrations of interest through its official channels, and there's no public word yet on when general sales will open. Given the scale of the event and the appetite likely to build for a home World Cup, it's worth registering interest early so you're notified as soon as that changes.

For now, the venues and format are locked in and the qualification clock is ticking. We'll update this piece as the ICC confirms the match schedule, ticket dates and the final list of qualified teams.