CAPE TOWN   -  Eight notable cricket stadiums in South Africa including Wander­ers, Kingsmead and Newlands have been shortlisted as venues for the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2027, the country’s renowned news outlet News24 reported Wednesday. The 16th edition of the Men’s Cricket World Cup, scheduled to run across October and November in 2027 will be co-hosted by South Africa, Zimba­bwe and Namibia. Mean­while, Pholetsi Moseki, the Chief Executive Of­ficer (CEO) of Cricket South Africa (CSA) in an interview with the aforementioned news outlet, explained vari­ous logistics behind the selection of certain ven­ues for the mega event. “The exercise (of choos­ing the venues) was a scientific one and also included the number of hotel rooms and the availability of an airport. If there was disappointment, it was also tempered by the reality that was based on the venues that were cho­sen,” Moseki was quoted as saying. 

Moseki then acknowledged that it was a challenging call for the crick­eting body to leave out three ICC-accredited venues Benoni, JB Marks Oval, and Diamond Oval. “We do in­deed have 11 ICC-accredited venues, so it was hard to leave out three, but a whole lot of things were taken into consideration. “There’s also the im­portant matter of training venues outside of the ones available at the venue, Moseki added while explain­ing the exclusion of the venues in Benoni, JB Marks Oval, and Diamond Oval. It is worth mentioning here that hosts South Africa and Zim­babwe have already earned direct qualification for the ICC Men’s Crick­et World Cup 2027 but the third co-host Namibia will have to go through the African qualifiers. A total of 14 teams will participate in the upcom­ing 50-over World Cup, which will be divided into two groups. The top three teams from each group will then advance to the Super Six stage. The top four teams after the conclu­sion of the Super Six stage will reach the semi-finals, followed by the grand finale.