The International Cricket Council (ICC) will combine the 2025 and 2026 cricket seasons into a single unified cycle when the revamped awards return in 2027.
This decision follows a deliberate pause by the ICC to shift away from its traditional digital and social media-only announcements.
The governing body's ultimate goal is to transition the platform into a high-profile, in-person "major event"—positioning it as cricket's equivalent to football's Ballon d'Or or the NFL Honors.
“The ICC has presented its annual awards digitally for a number of years, but we deliberately held back the 2025 edition to rethink what that platform can, and should, look like," an ICC spokesperson told The Guardian.
“As a result of that rethink, we are now in the process of developing a new approach to the ICC awards, which will return in 2027 and treat 2025-26 as a single season, as we look to create a broader, more meaningful way for cricket to celebrate its leading players, teams and achievements."
The restructured platform is being designed to create a more impactful and meaningful way to celebrate the sport's leading players, teams, and overall achievements.
Earlier this month, the same publication reported that the ICC has shelved its plans to launch a global franchise T20 tournament, effectively blocking a potential revival of a Champions League T20-style format.
The Champions League Twenty20 ran for six seasons between 2009 and 2014. It functioned as an elite cross-border club competition, pitting top domestic squads from tournaments like the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the Big Bash League (BBL) against each other.
Despite its initial popularity among core fans, the tournament was discontinued in 2015 due to a combination of low viewership, poor commercial returns, and unsustainable financial losses.
However, some administrators believed the current, highly mature global T20 market was ripe for a re-evaluation. The ICC saw it as an opportunity to take control of the game and increase its revenues.
The global governing body considered introducing quadrangular T20 competitions in bilateral windows, but it got pushback from India, Australia, and England boards. The member boards argued that there is simply no space in the upcoming Future Tours Programme (FTP) cycle (covering 2027 to 2031) to squeeze in another major event.
