What does the path to the 2027 ODI World Cup look like?
Fourteen teams will make the cut for the tournament, but it's a long, meandering road for those outside the top-ranked sides

Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan are almost certain of making the final 14 • Matthew Lewis/ICC/Getty Images
Two of the three co-hosts, South Africa and Zimbabwe, as well as eight of the other ten top-ranked teams on the ICC's ODI rankings. No cut-off date for when they will look at the rankings have been announced yet, however.
Namibia will have to go through the qualification pathway. Should they not make it to the tournament, we could have a scenario where matches are played in Namibia, but Namibia are not involved in the tournament.
Namibia are part of the CWC L2, the eight-team competition that runs over the next three years. The top four teams from that competition go through to a World Cup qualifier. The qualifier is a ten-team event, made up of the two bottom-ranked Full Members in the ODI rankings (other than South Africa and/or Zimbabwe, whose rankings don't matter), the top four teams from CWC L2, and the top four teams from a World Cup Qualifier Playoff. Out of these ten teams, the top four advance to the World Cup.
Other than Namibia there are: Netherlands, Scotland, UAE, USA, Nepal and Oman - all of whom were part of the World Cup qualifiers last year - as well as Canada, who were promoted from the Challenge League. These eight teams will each play 36 ODIs spread across nine triangular series, between now and December 2026.
Netherlands captured everyone's attention with the likes of Bas de Leede (ESPNcricinfo's Associate batter of the year), Logan van Beek and Max O'Dowd, but there are loads of others to look out for.
There are 12 teams in this league, some of them being decided currently with a tournament being played in Malaysia, which is scheduled to conclude on March 3.
A grand total of 36. That will be whittled down to 32 once the Challenge League participants are confirmed. Considering that there will be ten automatic qualifiers from the rankings (and hosts), realistically that means 22 other teams (including two Full Members) will be in the running for four spots.
Firdose Moonda is ESPNcricinfo's correspondent for South Africa and women's cricket