On Wednesday, July 15, the International Cricket Council (ICC) revealed a revised format for the men's Cricket World Cup 2027, which may result in an extra match between bitter rivals India and Pakistan.  

The three lowest-ranked qualifiers will now compete in a preliminary round, with just one of them moving on to a 12-person main group stage, even though the competition in southern Africa next year will still consist of 14 teams. With a new "super seven" stage in place of the old "super six" round-robin, there will now only be two pools of six.  

Notably, there won't be quarterfinals since the event won't have the additional risk and attention that comes with an additional round of decisive elimination matches. However, the likelihood of an additional match between India and Pakistan is increased when there is an additional team in the round-robin round.

India and Pakistan could therefore play each other up to three times: once in the first group stage, once in the "super seven," and again in the semifinals or final.

A match between India and Pakistan is the most profitable in the sport because of the subcontinent's intense love of cricket, which in turn generates enormous broadcast rights and commercial profits for the ICC.

India and Pakistan partake in no bilateral series given the heightened political tensions between the two countries. They last played a limited-overs bilateral series in 2012-13 and a Test series in 2007.

In a statement, the ICC insisted the new World Cup structure "creates greater context, competitiveness and consequence during the event."

(AFP inputs)