International Cricket Tournaments
Almost all International Cricket Tournaments are organized by the International Cricket Council. Cricket tournaments are held in three forms of international cricket – Test, One-Day International and Twenty20 International. National Cricket Teams participate in them. National teams of full ICC member countries are allowed to the main cricket tournaments, but there are also tournaments that are open to associate members.
Asia Cup
27 August 2022
11 September 2022
completed
T20I
Cricket at the Asian Games
24 September 2023
7 October 2023
completed
ODI
ICC Champions Trophy
1 June 2025
18 June 2025
Has Not Started
ODI
ICC Cricket World Cup Super League
30 July 2020
30 May 2023
completed
ODI
ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup
1 October 2023
30 November 2023
completed
T20I
ICC Men’s T20 World Cup
16 October 2022
13 November 2022
completed
ODI
International Cricket Tournaments: Facts and Records
The first ever international match took place in 1844.
The 1987 World Cup was the first-ever world cup which was held outside England.
England is the only nation which has hosted the most number of World Cups (4) the next is India and Pakistan (2-both jointly).
In the year 2019, England made the record of hosting the world cup for the most number of times, i.e; five times.
Sachin Tendulkar played the most number of international cricket matches.
International Cricket Tournaments: major cricket tournaments
Even though cricket has been played for many centuries, it became truly famous in England and internationally only in the second half of the 18th century. We tell you about international cricket tournaments, their features and history.
When did international cricket tournaments appear, and how they developed
The first international cricket match took place in 1844, with the USA and Canada as rivals. The period from 1890 to the outbreak of the First World War was the golden age for cricket, as it was at this time that the Country Championship started in England, the Currie Cup in South Africa and the Sheffield Shield in Australia. The Imperial Cricket Conference was created in 1909, which was later renamed the International Cricket Council. Initially, this organization included England, Australia and South Africa. The West Indies joined it in 1928, in 1930 – New Zealand, in 1932 – India. Pakistan became a member of the ICC five years after the formation of this state in 1952.
Women’s international cricket tournaments began to be held only at the beginning of the 20th century. The first test match between women’s teams took place in 1934, with England and Australia participating. The first Women’s World Cup took place a few decades later when the British won in 1973.
A more dynamic and faster cricket format began to develop in the post-war years, where each team has only one inning. Thanks to an annoying nuisance, the first international limited-overs cricket tournament was held in 1971, thanks to an annoying nuisance: bad weather prevented the test matches. The rivals in this confrontation were England and Australia. And later, the first Men’s World Cup was held in 1975, where matches were held in the ODI format. This tournament was so successful that since then, such competitions had been held regularly.
1992 was also a significant year in the history of international cricket tournaments when spotlights became mandatory in stadiums, and players began to play in colored clothes and with a red ball. This finally marked the transition internationally from test matches to a shorter format. In the 21st century, another epoch-making event in cricket happened: the Twenty20 format appeared, the shortest; the first T20I tournament was held in 2007.
The ICC has 104 participants who play in the Test Cricket, One Day International and Twenty20 International championships at the international level.
The most famous international cricket tournaments
At the moment, most of the major international tournaments are held under the auspices of the ICC. Among them:
- the ODI Cricket competition. This format is played at the ICC Men’s Champions Trophy, the Men’s Cricket World Cup, the Men’s Cricket World Cup Super League, the Cricket World Cup Super League 2, the Men’s Cricket World Cup Super Challenge League (List A), the U19 Cricket World Cup, the Woman’s Championship, the Women’s Cricket World Cup. It is currently the most widely used internationally.
- the Test Cricket competition. The World Test Championship is held in this format.
- the Competitions for Twenty20. This format is played at the Men’s World Twenty20, the Men’s T20 World Cup, the Women’s T20 World Cup, the Women’s Under-19 T20 World Cup.
Other organizations also hold cricket tournaments.
- The Ashes. This is a series of test cricket matches played between England and Australia. Its name is by no means accidental. The fact is that the British, the kings of cricket at that time, lost in a test match to the Australians in 1882, and even at home. It was a failure, and malicious English journalists believed that “the death of English cricket has come, his body will be cremated and sent to Australia.” The players could not stand such a shame, and the national team captain, Ivo Bligh, vowed to restore the desecrated honor and “return the ashes to their homeland.” The metaphor stuck, and the British won the next match. As a gift, the Australian fans presented the team with a tiny urn with ashes, a copy of it and became the official trophy of the tournament.
- the Champions League Twenty20 (CLT20). This tournament, featuring the best regional teams globally, was founded in 2008 and held for the first time in 2009. The tournament is held under the auspices of several organizations: the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the Cricket Australia, the Cricket South Africa. There are 12 teams in total.
- the NatWest Series. This is the ODI tournament, which has been held in England since 2000. National Westminster Bank sponsors it. The England national team and two invited teams from other countries are participating. Each team plays three matches against each of the opponents, after which the two best teams meet at Lord’s Stadium in London to determine the winner.
- the Border-Gavaskar trophy. This is a series of test matches where teams from India and Australia compete against each other. This tournament took place in 1996 for the first time. It takes place every two years. This competition was named after two famous cricketers: Allan Border (Australia) and Sunil Gavaskar (India).
- the Asia Cup. Of course, cricket tournaments also take place in selected regions. The Asia Cup is an example of such a competition. All Asian countries such as Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the UAE participate there. The competition has been held under the auspices of the Asian Cricket Council since 1984.
Cricket tournaments in those countries where this sport is popular are held both at the country level, the level of individual regions and the level of organizations.
You can find more information about cricket tips for betting in the corresponding section.
International Cricket Tournaments: The Cricket World Cup
The ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup (The Cricket World Cup, CWC) is the leading international cricket championship organized by the International Cricket Council (ICC). The tournament is held every four years, taking into account the qualification stages, allowing the most worthy teams to reach the final part of the draw.
At the moment, the World Cup is considered the flagship event in the cricket calendar, and winning the championship is the most authoritative and prestigious award in the discipline.
According to the historical reference, the first championship was held in June 1975 in England. Moreover, the tournament’s organization was so successful that the management decided not to transfer it from the “foggy Albion”. Only in 1987, the ICC considered it necessary to expand the geography of the world championship, dividing the hosting right between all representatives based on an unofficial rotation system: each of the fourteen full members of the ICC had to hold at least one match as an organizer.
The current format of the Cricket World Cup involves a qualification period, during which there is a removal of weak teams and the selection of worthy intercontinental level. The qualification takes place within three years. As a result, a group of teams is formed that will go to The Cricket World Cup.
We are talking about 16 teams, where there are 10 full members of the ICC plus the host country, which automatically passes into the playoffs, and the remaining teams are qualifiers. The teams are divided into 4 groups, from where the two strongest teams are sent to the semifinals and the final. The decisive playoff stage takes place within a month, after which the whole world will know the new champion for the next four years.
According to statistics, twenty national teams took part in 11 past world championships. For comparison, ten representatives of this discipline played in the last World Championship in 2019. At the moment, the most productive is the Australian national team – a 5-time world champion (the last victory in 2015). Teams from India and the West Indies have two trophies each, the national team from Pakistan, Sri Lanka and England-one each. The current champion is the English national team, which won the 2019 championship. The next tour is scheduled for 2023 in India.
Interestingly, the first tournament among women – Women’s Cricket World Cup, was held two years earlier than the men’s – in 1973.
International Cricket Tournaments: ICC World Twenty20
The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup (ICC World Twenty20) is an international Twenty20 cricket tournament organized by the International Cricket Council. At the moment, the championship involves competition between 16 national teams: ten ranked teams and six representatives of the qualification.
The ICC World Twenty20 is held every two years. The draw for 2020 had to be postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was also decided to change the venue: India once again became the tournament’s organizer, while Australia will host the event in 2022.
At the moment, six international Twenty20 tournaments have been played, and each of them was organized by different countries. Johannesburg hosted the T20 World Cup for the first time in its history in 2007. The leader in the number of titles is the West Indies, which won the second trophy in 2016.
The women’s version of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup tournament was first held in 2009 in London.
International Cricket Tournaments: ACC Asia Cup
Among the international level tournaments, the ACC Asia Cup is an intercontinental tournament in the ODI and T20 categories, held between Asian countries. The debut draw was held in 1984 under the auspices of the Asian Cricket Council.
Initially, it was planned that the tournament would be held every two years, then the schedule was changed to 3 and 4 years, respectively. Since 2010, they have returned to the usual schedule.
The current champion is the Indian national team, with seven titles: 6 in ODI and 1 in T20. Sri Lanka has won 5 championships in 14 seasons.
International Cricket Tournaments: ICC Men’s Champions Trophy
The ICC Men’s Champions Trophy international tournament is better known as the “mini-world Championship”, slightly inferior in authority to the leading world championship.
The tournament’s history begins in 1998 but is interrupted in the period from 2013 to 2017. The resumption of the Champions Trophy is due to the ICC’s decision to fill up the calendar with T20 tournaments in addition to the ICC World Twenty20. The next drawing should take place in 2021.
International Cricket Tournaments: inactive tournaments
Few people know that cricket was present in the program of the Olympic Games, however, once. A unique opportunity to witness cricket at the Summer Olympics was in 1900, held in France. The national team of England and the hosts of the tournament met in the confrontation for the title. The UK was stronger. Although, at that time, the French team could not worry that it would not get on the podium because only two countries participated in the tournament.
The World Cricket League (WCL) is a series of competitions of international ODI tournaments of the format for national teams that do not have Test status. All ICC associate members were eligible to participate in the draw. The organizer set a goal of providing preparation for The Cricket World Cup for teams without a privileged status. The first draw was held in 2007, the last one – in 2019, after which the WCL was reformed.
Champions League Twenty20, formerly known as CLT20, is an international league held annually from 2008 to 2014. The best representatives of T20 cricket took part in the commercial championship.
The teams competed for two weeks in early autumn (September-October) in South Africa or India for a prize fund of $ 6 million. However, the loss of audience interest was reflected in the outflow of sponsorship, which led to its abolition.
