දිනපතා සත්ය කරුණු දැන ගැනීමට අපගේ WhatsApp චැනලයටමෙතනින් එකතුවන්න.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) T20 World Cup cricket tournament, co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka, began on February 7, 2026, and is scheduled to conclude with the final match on March 8, 2026.
At a time when there is significant global interest in the T20 World Cup, a misleading claim has been circulating on social media stating that only a limited number of countries compete in the tournament. Below is our fact check examining that claim.
Social Media Post :
A social media post featuring an image of a world map highlighting the countries claimed to be participating in the Cricket World Cup has been circulating online. The post includes the caption, roughly translated as, “So this is all the world that plays cricket?” and further questions whether it is even appropriate to call it a “World Cup.”
In the world map shown in this post, only a few countries such as Australia, England, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh, have been highlighted, implying that only these countries are competing in the World Cup.
Based on this, the post questions whether it is appropriate to refer to the tournament as a “World Cup.”
These posts were also shared on YouTube in a similar manner.
Not only within Sri Lanka but across social media platforms around the world, this content was widely circulated from a sarcastic perspective in this manner.
Accordingly, we conducted a fact-check to verify the accuracy of this claim.
Fact Check :
A total of 20 countries have qualified for the 2026 T20 World Cup
Accordingly, a total of 20 countries have qualified for the 2026 T20 World Cup tournament.
Therefore, in addition to the countries highlighted in the above image, several other nations have also qualified for the final stage of the World Cup through different qualification pathways.
In addition to the countries shown in the image, the United States, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Oman, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates, Zimbabwe, and the West Indies have also qualified for the World Cup. ICC Cricket
Instead of Bangladesh, Scotland joined the list of 20 final teams. They competed under four initial groups: A, B, C, and D, and from these groups, eight countries have already qualified for the Super 8 stage.
All the countries around the world competing to qualify for the Cricket World Cup can be represented as follows.
How do teams qualify for the T20 World Cup?
Not all member countries of the International Cricket Council (ICC) automatically enter the final stage. Instead, a multi-level qualification process is followed.
In the map above, the countries shown in blue are the 12 teams that have directly qualified for the 2026 T20 World Cup.
These were selected as follows:
In the map above, the countries shown in blue are the 12 teams that have directly qualified for the 2026 T20 World Cup. These include the host nations, India and Sri Lanka, who automatically qualify; the Super 8 teams from the 2024 T20 tournament — Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, South Africa, West Indies, and the United States; and the remaining three from the top-ranked teams by T20I rankings — Pakistan, New Zealand, and Ireland.
Countries shown in green qualified through regional qualification tournaments.
These can be seen as below.
Qualifying locations in African region (2 spots): Zimbabwe and Namibia
Qualifying locations in American region (1 spot): Canada
Qualifying locations in Asian/East Asia-Pacific region (3 spots): Nepal, Oman, United Arab Emirates
Qualifying locations in European region (2 spots): Italy and Netherlands
Countries shown in yellow participated in the regional qualifiers but failed to qualify.
Countries shown in black either withdrew or were suspended. This year, Bangladesh chose not to participate. They were replaced by Scotland, a team that ranked high in the T20I rankings but had not qualified through regional tournaments.
You can find the full details here.
More than 100 countries are members of the International Cricket Council (ICC).
According to the ICC, by 2026, there will be 12 Full Member countries and 96 Associate Members countries where cricket is firmly established and organized but which do not have full membership. In total, 108 countries are currently affiliated with the ICC and indicated as follows.
According to the ICC official website, there are currently 22 member countries in the African region, 17 in the American region, 24 in the Asian region, 11 in the East Asia Pacific region, and 34 in the European region, which has the largest number of member countries among the regions. It can be found here.
Similarly, below is a comparison showing the number of member countries and the number of countries that compete in the World Cups for two other popular sports football and rugby alongside cricket.
| Sport | World Cup teams (current/next format) | World Cup cycle example | Global governing body | Total member countries/entities* | Main regions used for governance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Football (association) | 48 teams in the final tournament (from 2026 onwards) | FIFA World Cup 2026 | FIFA | 211 member associations | 6 confederations: AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (N/C America & Caribbean), CONMEBOL (S America), OFC (Oceania), UEFA (Europe) |
| Rugby union | 20 teams (expanding to 24 for 2027) | Rugby World Cup 2023 → 2027 | World Rugby | 134 member unions (118 full, 16 associate) | 6 regional associations: Asia Rugby, Rugby Africa, Rugby Europe, Oceania Rugby, Rugby Americas North, Sud América |
| Cricket | 20 teams at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup (2024, 2026 cycle) | ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024/2026 | ICC (cricket) | 110 members (12 Full, 98 Associate) | 5 regional bodies: Asia (ACC), Africa, Americas, East Asia-Pacific (EAP), Europe |
Conclusion:
Our investigation shows that cricket is played in more than 100 countries around the world. This means that the social media posts questioning whether it is correct to call it a “World Cup” are misleading.
According to the International Cricket Council (ICC), by 2026 there will be more than 100 countries where cricket is firmly established, and these countries participate throughout the year in various regional tournaments under the ICC. However, just like football or rugby World Cups, not all these countries qualify for the final stage of the Cricket World Cup. Only those teams that earn a place through the qualification process participate in the final tournament.
Title:Is it true that only a handful of countries compete in the Cricket World Cup?
Fact Check By: Fact Crescendo TeamResult: Misleading
