ICC Bali meetings: WTC 2027-31 fixtures, events to 2035 up for approval

The International Cricket Council (ICC) began its final Board and Committee meetings of 2026 in Bali, Indonesia, on Wednesday, 11 November, with the fixtures of the next two World Test Championship cycles and the calendar of men's global events up to 2035 on the table. The meetings run until Sunday, 15 November, the ICC said. Eight ICC committees meet over a four-day programme, and the ICC Board meeting closes the proceedings, when decisions are expected.

These meetings decide what international cricket looks like for most of the next decade. The WTC fixtures for 2027-31 determine which Test teams play each other, home and away, and how often. For India, whose series against Australia and England are among the most watched and most valuable in the sport, the fixture list shapes both the team's calendar and broadcasters' plans.

The most debated idea is the size of the Test championship. Reports before the meetings described a proposal to bring all 12 Full Members, the countries with full ICC voting membership and Test status, into a single WTC division, instead of the current nine teams. The same reports said the next cycle is likely to stay at nine, and the ICC has not announced any decision to expand. A bigger league would give the three Full Members now outside the championship a path into it, but would also crowd an already full calendar.

The 2032-35 cycle is further away but still matters now, because countries bid to host events years in advance and broadcasters buy rights in long blocks. Reported plans include a T20 World Cup in October-November 2032, another in July 2034, and in 2035 a WTC final followed by the ODI World Cup. These are proposals in pre-meeting reporting, not confirmed dates, and the ICC has not designated hosts for any event in that cycle.

Two other items could have quieter but lasting effects. The McKinsey review looks at international cricket as a whole, at a time when franchise T20 leagues compete with national teams for players and dates; the Franchise League Review Group's feedback sits next to it. The DRS accreditation programme aims to set common standards for the ball-tracking and edge-detection technology that umpires rely on.

Peepals calculation: Moving the World Test Championship from nine to 12 teams would add three sides, a one-third increase (3 ÷ 9 ≈ 0.33). It would also raise the number of possible team pairings from 36 to 66 (9 × 8 ÷ 2 = 36; 12 × 11 ÷ 2 = 66), an increase of about 83% (66 ÷ 36 ≈ 1.83), which is why a single 12-team league is hard to fit into a two-year cycle. Our calculation from the reported figures.

Short-term: Decisions announced at the end of the Board meeting on 15 November will fix the shape of Test cricket from 2027 and the timing of men's global events to 2035.

Long-term: A larger WTC, a new governance structure or new rules on franchise leagues would change how often smaller Test nations play India, Australia and England, and how players divide their year between countries and leagues.

Who is affected: National boards including the BCCI; players weighing national duty against T20 leagues; Associate and smaller Full Member nations hoping for more Test cricket; and broadcasters and fans planning around the global calendar.

What to watch next: The ICC Board meeting concludes the programme on Sunday, 15 November 2026, when the WTC fixtures and event windows are due for approval.

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