2011 Cricket World Cup

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The 2011 Cricket World Cup will be the tenth time this tournament has been held, and will be held in the four Asian Test cricket playing countries India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The World Cup will be held during the months of February and March 2011.

1 Bids
2 Structure
3 Semi-finals and Final
4 See also
5 External links
6 References and notes

[edit] Bids

The International Cricket Council announced its decision on which countries would host the 2011 World Cup on April 30, 2006.

Australia and New Zealand also bid for the tournament, and a successful Australasian bid for the 2011 World Cup would have seen a 50-50 split in games, with the final still up for negotiation. The Trans–Tasman bid, Beyond Boundaries, was the only bid for 2011 delivered to ICC headquarters in Dubai ahead of the March 1 deadline. Considerable merits of the Australasian bid were the superior venues and infrastructure and the total support of both the New Zealand and Australian governments on tax and customs issues during the tournament, according to Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland^[1]. The New Zealand government had also given assurance that Zimbabwe would be allowed to compete in the tournament, following political discussions in the country whether their cricket team should be allowed to tour Zimbabwe in 2005. The Australasian bid also won the support of former West Indies captain Shivnarine Chanderpaul^[2].

ICC President Ehsan Mani said the extra time taken by the Asian bloc to hand over its bid compliance book had harmed the four-nation bid. However, when the time came to vote, Asia won the hosting rights by ten votes to three^[1]. The Pakistan Cricket Board has revealed that it was the vote of the West Indies Cricket Board that swung the matter, as the Asian bid had the support of the four bidding countries along with South Africa and Zimbabwe^[3]. It was reported in Pakistani newspaper Dawn that the Asian countries promised to hold fund-raising events for West Indian cricket during the 2007 World Cup, which may have influenced the vote^[4]. However, chairman of the Monitoring Committee of the Asian bid, I. S. Bindra, said it was their promise of extra profits in the region of US$ 400 million that swung the vote^[5], that there "was no quid pro quo for their support"^[6], and that playing the West Indies had "nothing to do with the World Cup bid"^[6].

International cricket politics lie at the heart of the dispute. Since cricket is the most popular sport in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, Asia is of fundamental financial importance to the International Cricket Council^[7]. However, historically, international cricket has been controlled by the Old Commonwealth nations of England, Australia, and New Zealand, supported by South Africa. The centre of cricketing politics has moved, over time, with the money, and the Asian nations, particularly India under the guidance of Jagmohan Dalmiya, looking for greater control in the direction of international cricket, and in 2005 Dalmiya said that the Indian subcontinent should host every third World Cup^[7].

[edit] Structure

On 11 April 2005, Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Shaharyar Khan announced an agreement about the allocation of games, though no decision on the location of semi-finals and final has been made^[8]. Three months later, PCB director Abbas Zaidi confirmed that India had been chosen to host the final, while Pakistan and Sri Lanka would host the semi-finals.^[9] This will be the first time Sri Lanka will host a World Cup semi-final, after hosting two group games during the 1996 World Cup. The opening ceremony will take place in Bangladesh.^[10] Australian cricketer Brett Lee will be performing the theme song for this World Cup. [1]

India

22 games (including the final)
Venues^[4]: Eden Gardens (Kolkata), Feroz Shah Kotla (Delhi), M. Chinnaswamy Stadium (Bangalore), M. A. Chidambaram Stadium (Chennai), Punjab C.A. Stadium (Mohali), Sardar Patel Stadium (Ahmedabad), Vidarbha C.A. Ground (Nagpur), Wankhede Stadium (Mumbai), Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium (Hyderabad).
The final in Mumbai at the Wankhede Stadium [2].

Pakistan

14 games (including one semi-final)
Venues: Arbab Niaz Stadium (Peshawar), Gaddafi Stadium (Lahore), Iqbal Stadium (Faisalabad), Multan Cricket Stadium (Multan), National Stadium (Karachi), Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium (Rawalpindi)
One semi-final at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.

Sri Lanka

9 games (including one semi-final)
Venues: R. Premadasa Stadium (Colombo), Sinhalese S.C. (Colombo)
One semi-final at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

Bangladesh

6 games (including the opening ceremony and opening match)
Venue (one from three will be picked): Bangabandhu National Stadium (Dhaka; the stadium was officially handed over to the football federation in March 2005), Narayanganj Osmani Stadium (Fatullah), Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium (Mirpur)

Late in 2007, the four host nations agreed upon a revised format for the 2011 World Cup, in which 14 teams will participate instead of 16. The first round of the tournament will be a round-robin similar to the one held in South Africa in the 2003 edition in which the 14 teams are divided into 2 groups of 7 teams each. The 7 teams play each other once with the top four from each group qualifying for the quarter-finals.

The format ensures that each team gets to play a minimum of six matches even if they are ruled out of the tournament due to early defeats.

[edit] Semi-finals and Final

The semi-finals of the 2011 cricket World Cup will be played at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, Pakistan, and the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The final will be played at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, India.