Updated August 2026 · 8 min read
The Pan-Continental Cricket Federation has confirmed the full match schedule for next year's Continental Championship, ending months of speculation about venues, groupings, and the tournament's return to a home-and-away group format after two editions played entirely at neutral venues. Twelve teams will compete across six weeks, with the final scheduled for a purpose-built venue that will host a Continental Championship final for the first time.
We spoke with tournament director Elena Marsh about the scheduling decisions behind the release, and with two captains — Northshore's Aiden Marsh and Dhara's Priya Solanki — about how the format change affects their teams' preparation.
The most significant shift from the previous two editions is structural: instead of every match being played at a small number of neutral venues, this edition splits the group stage into home-and-away legs before all twelve teams travel to a single host nation for the knockout rounds. Marsh said the change was a direct response to feedback from both broadcasters and fans.
"Teams told us their home crowds wanted a real stake in the group stage, not just the final." — Elena Marsh, Tournament Director, Pan-Continental Cricket Federation
Under the new structure, the twelve teams are split into three groups of four, with each team playing the others in its group both home and away — six group matches per team, up from four in the previous edition. The top two teams from each group, plus the two best third-placed teams, advance to a knockout quarter-final round hosted at a single neutral venue over one condensed ten-day window.
| Phase | Window | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Group stage (home legs) | Weeks 1–3 | Home-and-away, 3 groups of 4 |
| Group stage (away legs) | Weeks 4–6 | Return fixtures at opponents' venues |
| Quarter-finals | Week 7 | Single neutral host venue, top 8 teams |
| Semi-finals | Week 8 | Same host venue |
| Final | Week 9 | New purpose-built venue, first Championship final hosted there |
For teams, the longer home-and-away group phase changes squad planning significantly. Northshore captain Aiden Marsh, whose side reached the final of the previous edition, said the extended travel schedule was the biggest adjustment his coaching staff had to plan around.
"Six group games home and away is basically a mini-series before the tournament even really starts." — Aiden Marsh, Captain, Northshore
Marsh added that his squad would likely rotate more players through the group stage than in previous editions, given the compressed turnaround between away fixtures in different countries. Dhara captain Priya Solanki echoed the concern about travel load, but welcomed the change from a competitive standpoint.
"Playing everyone home and away is fairer — you can't hide from a bad away day anymore." — Priya Solanki, Captain, Dhara
Solanki's team, which narrowly missed qualification for the knockout rounds last time out, will open its campaign at home against Sterling before a difficult opening away block against Westvale and Preston in consecutive weeks — a sequence she described as the toughest possible start on paper, but one her side had specifically prepared for during the off-season.
The federation confirmed that group-stage matches will be spread across each participating nation's home grounds, keeping ticket demand distributed rather than concentrated at one or two neutral sites, as in previous editions. The knockout stage and final will be centralised at a single host nation, announced separately from the fixture list, with the new venue for the final designed specifically with an expanded capacity for televised finals coverage.
Marsh confirmed that every group-stage match will be broadcast in some form, a departure from earlier editions where only marquee fixtures received full international coverage.
"Every single group match will be shown live somewhere — that wasn't true two editions ago." — Elena Marsh, Tournament Director, Pan-Continental Cricket Federation
Organisers wanted home crowds to have a stake in group-stage matches rather than concentrating all fixtures at neutral venues, and moved to a home-and-away structure in response to feedback from teams and broadcasters.
Eight of the twelve teams advance: the top two from each of the three groups, plus the two best third-placed sides across all groups.
Organisers have confirmed that every group-stage match will receive some form of live broadcast coverage, expanding on the marquee-only coverage of previous editions.
The final will be hosted at a newly built venue designed for expanded live-audience capacity, marking the first Continental Championship final held there.