Former India spinner Harbhajan Singh slammed the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) planning and strategy behind the scheduling of World Cups across formats in the sport. The cricketing world is getting ready for the 2026 T20 World Cup, slated to take place just 20 months after the previous edition in the West Indies and the United States of America (USA).
The plan to conduct the T20 World Cup every two years, coupled with the reintroduction of the ICC Champions Trophy, has resulted in a tournament overload of late. The longer formats already have designated competitions assigned in the form of the World Test Championship (WTC) and the ODI World Cup.
Harbhajan Singh bemoaned the frequency at which the ICC events were being conducted, as the last event was held almost a year ago in the form of the 2025 Champions Trophy in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
“If anyone plays for 15-20 years, he gets the chance to play a World Cup every year, and it can happen that he can win 10 World Cups, which is just ridiculous. They have just simply diluted the value of a World Cup. It should not happen like this, a World Cup is a huge thing, and if you keep scheduling it every year, then there will be no value,” Harbhajan Singh said on his YouTube channel.
With the T20 World Cup set to be the flagship ICC event in 2026, the following year will have two major events in the form of the 2027 World Test Championship (WTC) Final and the 2027 ODI World Cup in South Africa.
“World Cups are happening all the time now” – Harbhajan Singh on ICC’s poor scheduling ahead of 2026 T20 World Cup
As far as men’s cricket is concerned, aside from the COVID-19 break, 2018 remains the last year during which not even a single ICC tournament was held.
“World Cups are happening all the time now. They schedule it whenever they want, there is no clear pattern about when and where it is happening. Not like after a proper 2 year or 4 year gap or something, the World Cup just comes. Whether it be T20, or ODI, and I am sure they will come up with something else as well no,” Harbhajan Singh added.
With the IPL being held in the dominant March to May window, and the majority of the teams involved in bilateral series for the second half of the year, the T20 World Cup is now being held in an unfamiliar window right at the start of 2026.
Edited by Gokul Nair
