Cricket World Cup 2027 in Victoria Falls: all four matches
Four matches, nine days, one town — and five free days in the middle that most visiting fans have not thought about yet.
Victoria Falls hosts four ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2027 matches, between 24 October and 1 November 2027. The first is Zimbabwe v India on Sunday 24 October, the last group-stage fixture of the tournament and the first World Cup match ever played at the new Mosi-oa-Tunya International Cricket Stadium. Three Super 7 matches follow on 28 October, 30 October and 1 November. That is a nine-day window with four match days in it — and five days with no cricket at all, which is the part worth planning properly.
The four Victoria Falls fixtures
Most coverage of this tournament mentions Victoria Falls once, for the India game, and moves on. There are actually four matches here, and they sit close enough together that you can see all of them without changing hotels:
- Sunday 24 October 2027 — Zimbabwe v India. Group stage, and the last group-stage match of the whole tournament.
- Thursday 28 October 2027 — Super 7. The slots seeded for India and Australia.
- Saturday 30 October 2027 — Super 7. The slots seeded for Pakistan and England.
- Monday 1 November 2027 — Super 7. The slots seeded for Australia and New Zealand.
One honest caveat on those last three. The ICC publishes Super 7 fixtures by seeding position, not by team — A1, A2, A3, AB4 and B1. Seven teams are pre-seeded into those slots, but if a team that is not seeded qualifies in place of one that is, it inherits the slot. So the 24 October fixture is a confirmed Zimbabwe v India; the other three are confirmed dates and venue, with the teams depending on how the group stage falls. Anyone telling you with certainty that Pakistan play England here on 30 October is guessing.
For the wider tournament: 14 teams, 57 matches, 2 October to 21 November 2027, shared between South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia across twelve grounds. Zimbabwe’s three are Harare, Bulawayo and Victoria Falls. The final is in Johannesburg on 21 November.
The stadium: what is actually built
The ground is the Mosi-oa-Tunya International Cricket Stadium, and it is new. According to the ICC’s own update, the main building works are substantially complete — media and broadcast centres, changing rooms, medical facility, grandstands and grass banks are all up. Roofing, the bucket seats and the corporate gazebos are still being finished.
Full completion is targeted for mid-2027, with a trial match and then a full international series planned beforehand to test the place properly. So it is not finished today, and nobody has played a senior international there yet. That is normal for a venue at this stage, but it is worth knowing if you are the sort of person who likes to look up a ground’s record before booking a flight. There isn’t one yet.
What there will be is a Test-standard stadium about ten minutes from the waterfall, in a town of roughly 35,000 people that is used to handling a few hundred thousand visitors a year. The scale of the cricket is new. The scale of the hospitality is not.
The five free days, and why they decide your trip
Here is the planning insight nobody is writing about. Lay the four match days out:
- 24 Oct — cricket
- 25, 26, 27 Oct — nothing
- 28 Oct — cricket
- 29 Oct — nothing
- 30 Oct — cricket
- 31 Oct — nothing
- 1 Nov — cricket
If you come for all four matches you have five empty days in Victoria Falls. That is not a gap to be endured; it is most of a proper safari holiday sitting inside a cricket trip, and it is long enough to do things you cannot do on a weekend.
A three-day gap is enough for a full day in Chobe in Botswana, a day trip to Hwange for the elephants, and still a slow morning at the falls. The single days between matches suit the shorter things — a guided tour of the falls in the morning, a sunset cruise that evening, or the Flight of Angels helicopter, which takes about fifteen minutes and is the only way to see the whole width of the falls at once.
Late October is also, as it happens, the best time of year for game viewing. It is the end of the dry season: the bush is thin, the waterholes are the only water left, and the animals are concentrated around them. It is the hottest time of year too — afternoons in the high 30s Celsius are normal, which is worth knowing both for the safari and for sitting in a stand all day. Our month-by-month weather guide has the detail.
The flip side: late October is low water on the Zambezi. The falls will be at their thinnest, with the Zimbabwean side holding the best of what is flowing. You will get clear views and good photographs rather than the wall of spray you see in the April pictures. If the full-flood falls is what you came for, that is March to May, not World Cup season.
Tickets: how they work, and what we cannot do
Straight answer: we do not sell match tickets, and no tour operator can promise you one. Tickets for the Cricket World Cup go through the ICC’s official channels only, and for this tournament that starts with a ballot registration at tickets.cricketworldcup.com. Register there, and watch the ICC’s own announcements for sale dates.
Be careful about the order you do things in. The temptation is to book flights and a hotel first because availability looks tight, then sort tickets out later. For a Zimbabwe v India match in a brand-new stadium with limited capacity, in a town this size, that is a real risk. Where you can, make the non-refundable parts of your trip conditional on the ticket, and check cancellation terms before you pay anything.
We can do everything around the ticket — accommodation, transfers, activities, safaris, the whole itinerary built around your match dates. We just cannot do the ticket itself, and anyone who says otherwise is worth a second look.
Where to stay, and why booking early is not a sales line
Victoria Falls has a few thousand beds. A World Cup fixture involving India can shift more people than that in a single afternoon, and three more match days follow it within a week. This is one of the rare cases where “book early” is arithmetic rather than marketing.
What exists here, broadly: budget lodges and guesthouses in and around town, mid-range hotels and lodges with pools and gardens, and five-star hotels and private lodges along the river and in the national park. Several of them sell as packages with transfers, meals and the main activities already in the price — the Ilala Lodge package, for instance, puts you about as close to the falls as a hotel gets.
Two practical notes. Nothing in Victoria Falls is far from anything else, so do not pay a premium purely for proximity to the stadium — the town is small and a transfer takes minutes. And check what happens to your deposit if the fixture moves, because in a tournament of this size fixtures occasionally do.
Our full accommodation list has every property we work with, with real rates rather than “from” teasers.
Getting there, and getting between the host cities
Victoria Falls International Airport (VFA) is about 20 km from town, roughly a 20 to 25 minute drive, and it takes direct flights from Johannesburg, Nairobi, Addis Ababa and Harare, plus seasonal regional services. Most visitors from India, the UK or Australia will connect through Johannesburg or Addis. There is no scheduled public transport from the airport, so a pre-booked transfer is the practical option — and it is already included in every one of our packages.
If you are following a team rather than a venue, you will be moving between host cities. Zimbabwe’s other two grounds are in Harare and Bulawayo, both reachable by domestic flight. South Africa’s eight venues are a separate flying exercise, and Namibia’s Windhoek hosts the opening Super Series from 2 October. Build more slack into those connections than you think you need; it is a big tournament across a big part of a continent.
One genuinely useful thing for this trip: if you plan to cross into Zambia for the Livingstone side of the falls, or into Botswana for Chobe, check whether your nationality qualifies for the KAZA UniVisa. It covers Zimbabwe and Zambia on one visa and makes day trips considerably less tedious.
Cricket World Cup 2027 in Victoria Falls: your questions
How many Cricket World Cup 2027 matches are being played in Victoria Falls?
Four. Zimbabwe v India on 24 October 2027 in the group stage, then three Super 7 matches on 28 October, 30 October and 1 November 2027. All four are at the Mosi-oa-Tunya International Cricket Stadium, giving a nine-day window with four match days in it.
When do Zimbabwe play India at Victoria Falls?
Sunday 24 October 2027. It is the final group-stage fixture of the tournament and the first Cricket World Cup match ever played at the Victoria Falls stadium.
Which teams play the Super 7 matches at Victoria Falls?
The dates and venue are confirmed but the teams are not. The ICC publishes Super 7 fixtures by seeding position, and the slots are pre-seeded to India, Australia, Pakistan, England and New Zealand. If a team that is not seeded qualifies in that position instead, it takes the slot. The teams will only be certain once the group stage finishes on 24 October 2027.
Is the Victoria Falls cricket stadium finished?
Not yet. The ICC reports that the main building works are substantially complete, including the grandstands, media and broadcast centres and changing rooms, with roofing and seating still being installed. Full completion is targeted for mid-2027, and a trial match plus an international series are planned before the World Cup to test the facilities.
How do I get tickets for the Victoria Falls matches?
Only through the ICC’s official channels, starting with the ticket ballot registration at tickets.cricketworldcup.com. We do not sell match tickets and no tour operator can guarantee you one. Arrange your ticket first where you can, and check cancellation terms before paying for anything non-refundable.
What is there to do in Victoria Falls on the days between matches?
There are five days with no cricket inside the nine-day window. The three-day gap after the India match is long enough for a full day in Chobe National Park in Botswana and a day trip to Hwange for the elephants. Single days suit a guided tour of the falls, a Zambezi sunset cruise, a helicopter flight over the gorges, rafting or a bungee jump from the bridge. Late October is the end of the dry season, which is the best game viewing of the year.
Will the falls be impressive in late October?
They will be at their lowest. Late October is the end of the dry season, so the Zambezi is at low water and the Zimbabwean side holds the best of what is flowing. You get clear, unobstructed views and good photographs instead of the wall of spray. Peak flood is March to May, which is outside the tournament entirely.
Planning a Cricket World Cup trip to Victoria Falls?
We build the trip around your match dates — accommodation, transfers, safaris and the days in between. Confirm with a 50% deposit by 31 March 2027 for 10% off travel during the tournament.