ICC to expand Women's Emerging Nations Trophy

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has decided to increase the number of teams in the Women's Emerging Trophy from eight teams to ten teams for the 2026 edition. The inaugural edition was held in November 2025. The upcoming edition is set to include five Test-playing nations and will be played in November.

Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Zimbabwe and Ireland are the five Test-playing nations, with the Netherlands, Scotland, Thailand, the UAE and Papua New Guinea (PNG) being the remaining participants in the 2026 edition. The decision to expand the competition was among the key decisions taken during the ICC Chief Executives Committee (CEC) meeting conducted online on Thursday, May 21.

Thailand come into the 2026 edition as defending champions after lifting the trophy in Bangkok. The hosts were joined by Scotland, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, Papua New Guinea, Namibia, Uganda and Tanzania, in an eight-team tournament, which ran from November 20-30. Thailand, the UAE, Scotland and the Netherlands finished level on points. The hosts were eventually identified as champions on net run rate.

As reported by Cricbuzz, the meeting did not include matters of discussion on men's cricket, such as the restructuring of the World Test Championship (WTC) or the proposed two-tier Test system. These topics have been left to the ICC Board, which is scheduled to meet on May 30 in Ahmedabad.

The meeting was conducted keeping in mind the ICC's goal to make women's cricket the most popular women's sport in the world, after the global success of the 2025 Women's World Cup, reflected by record-breaking global viewership numbers. 

The CEC received a presentation from McKinsey & Company, advising the board on fresh strategies for the development of women's cricket. They also presented strategies to help the board grow the revenue of the sport tenfold. The governing body also heard presentations from Oliver Wyman on how they could carry out their planned data monetisation project, which could potentially generate revenues of at least $100 million.