The top seven teams at the end of the league stage of the ongoing ODI World Cup in India will qualify for the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy to compete in an eight-team competition with hosts Pakistan.
An ICC spokesperson confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that the qualification system for the 2025 Champions Trophy was approved by the ICC Board in 2021, when the competition was announced as one of eight men’s global tournaments to be held in the 2024–31 cycle. Was brought back.
The development came as a surprise to some boards – those with teams in India and others who missed out on a place in the ODI World Cup – who told ESPNcricinfo they were unaware that qualification for the 2025 Champions Trophy was at stake. This tournament.
It also means that other full-member nations like West Indies, Zimbabwe and Ireland will not even get the opportunity to qualify for the tournament due to them failing to make it to the 2023 ODI World Cup.
In November 2021, the ICC had unveiled a number of global events for both men and women in the new cycle (2024-31), including two editions of the Champions Trophy – 2025 and 2029. In a media statement, the ICC had said that the Champions Trophy will be an eight-team competition and the tournament structure “will follow previous editions with two groups of four, semi-finals and a final”.
For the 2013 and 2017 editions of the Champions Trophy, the top eight teams in the ODI rankings on the cut-off date qualified for the event. It is understood that the decision to qualify the top seven teams in this World Cup for the 2025 Champions Trophy was originally approved by the ICC Chief Executive Committee, after which the ICC Board confirmed the recommendation.
A full member board confirmed that the qualification routes for all events were discussed and approved at the 2021 ICC meetings. For the 2027 Men’s ODI World Cup, which will be a 14-team tournament co-hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia, the qualification process is as follows: the two Full Member hosts – South Africa and Zimbabwe – plus the eight highest-ranked teams. on March 31, 2027, and the four remaining teams through the global qualifier tournament.