The International Cricket Council (ICC) is planning a big change for its annual awards. The ICC is now set to revamp its yearly awards into a major grand event, just like football’s Ballon d’Or and NFL Honors.
According to reports, the ICC has decided to pause its awards for two years and will bring back a new-look ceremony in 2027. The new awards will combine performances from both 2025 and 2026 seasons into a single cycle.
This is a big shift from ICC’s old way of announcing winners only on digital platforms and social media.
Why ICC skipped the 2025 awards
Fans were waiting for the ICC Awards 2025 but it did not happen. Now the ICC has confirmed the reason behind the delay. The ICC told The Guardian newspaper that it deliberately held back the 2025 edition to rethink the whole platform.
An ICC spokesperson said, “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.”
The spokesperson further added, “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.”
This means the next ICC Awards will evaluate players’ performances across two full calendar years – 2025 and 2026.
Grand ceremony like Ballon d’Or planned
The ICC now wants to make its awards a big global occasion for cricket. The aim is to create a live, in-person ceremony with red carpet, trophies, and big stars attending the event.
The idea is to make it similar to football’s Ballon d’Or ceremony where the best footballers in the world are honoured in front of a global audience, or the NFL Honors in American football.
There is a real opportunity for the awards to become a significant global occasion for cricket that generates genuine excitement on the calendar, the ICC spokesperson added.
The awards will include big trophies like the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for Best Men’s Cricketer and the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy for Best Women’s Cricketer. Other categories like Best Test Player, Best ODI Player, Best T20I Player, Emerging Player and Spirit of Cricket are also expected.
What about new T20 tournament?
Along with the awards revamp, reports also said that the ICC has shelved its plan to launch a new global franchise-based T20 tournament, which was seen as a revival of the Champions League T20 that ran from 2009 to 2014.
The ICC had thought about introducing quadrangular T20 events in bilateral windows, but boards like India, Australia and England did not agree. The member boards said there is no space in the Future Tours Programme cycle from 2027 to 2031 for another big event.
More details about the venue, format, categories and voting process for the new ICC Awards 2027 will be announced soon.