Cricket's formats, as the ICC classifies them.

The Laws leave the format to the organisers

Under Law 13.1 of the MCC's Laws of Cricket (2017 Code 4th Edition, 2026), the number of innings per side, one or two, and any limit by overs or by time are agreed before the match. That agreement must also say how the result is decided if neither side wins outright. One rulebook therefore covers every format; what separates a Test from a T20 international is the playing conditions and the status a governing body gives the match.

For international and top-level domestic cricket, status is set by the ICC's Classification of Official Cricket. The edition used here has effect from 1 July 2026 and replaced the edition with effect from March 2024. It applies every category to men's and women's cricket alike.

International formats

Performances in a Test, ODI or T20I that is abandoned after the toss, including for a dangerous pitch, still count in the official records.

Associates with ODI status

The July 2026 classification names the Associate Members holding men's ODI status as Canada, Namibia, Nepal, Oman, Scotland, the Netherlands, the UAE and the USA, until at least the end of the 2027 Cricket World Cup Qualifier Play-off. Women's ODI status is held by the Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, Scotland, Thailand and the USA. The same document notes that Afghanistan, a Full Member, does not have women's ODI status.

Match lengths

The ICC's women's ODI playing conditions (effective July 2026) set an ODI at one innings per side of no more than 50 overs, scheduled for one day. Our research did not read the men's ODI and T20I playing conditions for match length, so the men's figures are not given here.

For Tests, our research did not read the ICC's Test playing conditions for the scheduled length, so it is not stated from an ICC document. The Laws do link the follow-on to match length: Law 14.1.1 sets a 200-run follow-on margin for two-innings matches of 5 days or more, the length of most Tests. In October 2017, meeting in Auckland, the ICC Board approved a trial of four-day Tests, optional and bilateral until mid-2019, with World Test Championship matches staying at five days; this comes from a press report of the decision, as the ICC's own release was not opened.

Domestic cricket: first-class, List A and Twenty20

• First-class. Men's and women's matches of two innings per side, scheduled for three days or more, between sides of eleven, on natural turf, substantially following the ICC's standard playing conditions. Full Members may allow full playing replacements for any reason without a match losing first-class status, and a concussed player may be replaced by a full-playing substitute without loss of status. Age-group matches up to and including Under-19 are never first-class.
• List A limited-overs. ODIs, plus one-day, one-innings matches of at least 40 overs per side at state, county or provincial level or above, including franchise competitions in Full Member countries, given that status by the governing body. A match cut below 40 overs by weather keeps its List A status.
• List A Twenty20. T20Is, plus one-day, one-innings matches of 20 overs per side at the same levels, given that status by the governing body.

The ICC decides the status of matches in its own competitions; otherwise the Full Member where the match is played decides, with separate rules for neutral venues. The ICC credits the List A category to the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS). Before 2007 the ACS alone classified men's limited-overs matches; since 2007 the ICC has owned the definition and left decisions to Full Members, while the ACS keeps its own list.

The classification's appendix gives England as an example: the County Championship is first-class, the One Day Cup is List A, and the Men's Blast and The Men's Hundred are Twenty20. Among women's competitions it lists the Women's One Day Cup as List A and the Women's Blast and Women's Hundred as Twenty20.

The Hundred

The Hundred is an English competition played over 100 balls per innings. Its official rules page (carrying a 2026 footer) sets out:

• ends change every 10 balls;
• bowlers deliver 5 or 10 consecutive balls, at the captain's choice, and no bowler may deliver more than 20 balls;
• a 25-ball powerplay, during which only two fielders may be outside the 30-yard circle;
• one strategic timeout per bowling side;
• league points of 4 for a win, 0 for a loss and 2 each for a tie or no result.

The sources disagree on the length of that timeout. The current rules page gives up to 90 seconds. The ECB's original announcement of the playing conditions allowed up to two and a half minutes; we saw that announcement only as a search-result summary. The current rules page is the more recent of the two.

Which rules apply

For any given match, three layers apply: the Laws, the playing conditions of the body running the competition, and the status the classification gives the match. The MCC and the Laws page explains how those layers fit together, and the women's cricket page covers the women's competitions in more detail.