ICC ODI World Cup 2027: Venues for CWC 2027 on African Continent Revealed

Wanderers, Kingsmead, and Newlands are among the eight top cricket stadiums selected as venues for the 2027 ICC ODI World Cup in South Africa as per a report by News24 on Wednesday (April 10).

The 2027 World Cup is scheduled to be jointly hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia during October and November. In 2003, multiple nations in Africa jointly hosted the ODI World Cup.

Pholetsi Moseki, the chief executive officer of Cricket South Africa, mentioned that the venue selection process considered factors such as the availability of hotel rooms and airports.

"The exercise was a scientific one and also included the number of hotel rooms and the availability of an airport. If there was disappointment, it was also tempered by the reality that was based on the venues that were chosen," Moseki was quoted as saying by the South African website.

Moseki explained that while it was difficult to exclude venues like Benoni's JB Marks Oval and Diamond Oval, various factors influenced the decision-making process. Additionally, the availability of training venues outside the main stadiums was also taken into account.

"We do indeed have 11 ICC-accredited venues, so it was hard to leave out three, but a whole lot of things were taken into consideration. There's also the important matter of training venues outside of the ones available at the venue."

The primary venues for the tournament will include Wanderers, Centurion Park, Kingsmead, St George's Park, Boland Park, and Newlands, while Mangaung Oval in Bloemfontein and Buffalo Park in East London will also host some matches. Other games will be held in co-host countries Zimbabwe and Namibia.

South Africa and Zimbabwe have secured direct qualification for the tournament, while Namibia will need to go through the African qualifiers. The top eight teams in the ICC ODI rankings will automatically qualify, with the remaining spots determined through global qualifier tournaments.

The format of the tournament will feature two groups of seven teams each, with the top three teams from each group advancing to the Super Six stage, leading to semi-finals and a final to determine the champions. Matches in the group stage will follow a round-robin format, similar to the 2003 World Cup.

(With PTI Inputs)