Bangladesh, USA to host men's and women's LA28 qualifying tournaments

The ICC has confirmed Bangladesh and the USA as the hosts for the final qualification events for the LA28 Olympics at its meetings in Bali, where the governing body also finalised the windows for marquee ICC men's tournaments until the end of 2035.

The ICC release also detailed the qualification process for the 2028 Men's T20 World Cup. The qualifier for the main event will feature 16 teams who will play in the first quarter of 2028, roughly six months before the World Cup is played in the October 12 to November 12 window in Australia and New Zealand.

The ICC has, however, still not announced the venue for the 2027 Men's ODI World Cup Qualifier. Cricinfo had reported that the qualifying tournament is set to be played from February 22 to March 23 next year and understands that the matches will be played in Potchefstroom (South Africa) and Windhoek (Namibia), pending some logistical confirmations.

The release confirmed that Bangladesh will host the men's qualifier for LA28 from February 5 to 13, 2028 before the USA hosts the women's qualifier from February 26 to March 5, 2028.

These tournaments will be the final stage of qualification for the main event at LA28. Each qualification event will feature eight teams in two groups of four for a total of 13 games. Each team will play the other three in their group once and the group winners will make the final. The final winner will seal the final qualification for the LA28 games.

Cricinfo had reported last month that the World Test Championship (WTC) finals were to be held in England until 2029 and the ICC release on Sunday stated the 2031 final will also be played in the same country, in the June 12 to 16 window.

The Bali meetings assumed significance because the ICC has been having discussions with members around additional multi-nation events, based on the recommendations made by global consultant McKinsey. However, the men's events calendar, which stretches until 2035, doesn't feature any new events.

While the ICC had already finalised in 2021 the venues for global events until the 2031 ODI World Cup, on Sunday it confirmed the tournament windows for the events between 2028 and 2031. In addition, the ICC also approved the events and windows between 2032 and 35 which include two T20 World Cups (2032, 2034), two WTC finals (2033, 2035), one ODI World Cup (2035) and one edition of the Champions Trophy (2033).

The venues for the 2032-35 events have not been announced yet. In 2021, the ICC Board had decided it would select hosts for all global events in the 2023-31 rights cycle effectively making a u-turn on its original decision to pick the hosts via a bidding process.

The ICC did not say what process it would adopt for the set of events falling in the next rights cycle (2031-35). However, based on the windows it has finalised, it would be fair to assume those tournaments are likely to be played in the southern hemisphere.