What prompted ICC’s big change? Women’s ODI World Cup to feature 10 teams after 2025 – sportingnews.com

Saurav Goyal
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has decided to make a major change in the women’s game. The 2029 Women’s ODI World Cup will now include 10 teams instead of the current eight.
The announcement came after the huge success of the 2025 edition, where India created history by winning its first-ever global women’s trophy, defeating South Africa in Navi Mumbai.
Add The Sporting News as a preferred news source
This move shows the ICC’s intent to make women’s cricket more global, more competitive, and more inclusive. The next World Cup will see more nations on the big stage.
The 2025 World Cup turned out to be one of the biggest sporting events in women’s cricket history.
The tournament saw massive crowds and record-breaking TV viewership as nearly 300,000 fans attended matches across venues and around 500 million people tuned in from India alone.
“The ICC board, keen to build on the success of the event, agreed to expand the next edition of the tournament to 10 teams (from 8 teams in 2025),” an ICC press release stated.
READ: Will MS Dhoni play IPL 2026?
“Nearly 300,000 fans watched the event in stadia breaking the record for tournament attendance for any women’s cricket event. The tournament also witnessed viewership growth and new records being set for on-screen audiences across the world with nearly 500 million viewers in India,” it further stated.
India’s remarkable run in the 2025 tournament had a major impact on the ICC’s vision. The women in blue became the first Asian team to lift the ODI trophy and brought record-breaking audience engagement as the final alone drew more than 21 million live viewers.
The ICC also approved an increase of around 10% in annual funding for associate members starting in 2026. 
RELATED LINKS:
Saurav Goyal is a content producer with over two years of experience in covering cricket. An avid cricket fan for more than two decades, his passion for the game led him to writing. Since then, he’s been delivering the latest news and engaging content to keep cricket fans informed and entertained.

source