Wednesday, April 29, 2009

India to host 2011 World Cup final, 29 games in all


The International Cricket Council (ICC) has moved its 2011 World Cup headquarters to Mumbai and increased India's allocation of matches after stripping Pakistan of co-hosting rights following a terror attack last month on the touring Sri Lankan team.

India will host 29 of the 49 matches, including the final and a semifinal. Bangladesh will stage the tournament opener and two quarterfinals among its eight matches and Sri Lanka will host 12 matches, including the other semifinal. 8 venues have been allocated in India, 2 in Bangladesh and 3 in Sri-Lanka..

The 14 matches originally scheduled to take place in Pakistan have been redistributed with 8 going to India, 4 to Sri Lanka and 2 to Bangladesh. The 10th edition of the World Cup was initially scheduled to be co-hosted by the sub-continent (IND, PAK, SRL and BAN), with Pakistan slated to stage a semifinal among its allocation of 14 matches.

Pakistan had earlier witnessed a terrorist attack on the SriLankan team bus on their way to the stadium. Five cricketers, including Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara received minor injuries. Ajantha Mendis, Thilan Samaraweera and Tharanga Paravitarana were also injured in the attack which killed six security men and two civilians.The tour had been called off immediately after the attack..

The opening ceremony would be held in Bangladesh on February 18,2011 with the games beginning from the next day.. The World Cup Organising Committee also relocated the Secretariat from Lahore to the BCCI's headquarters in Mumbai, and appointed BCCI Chief Administrative Officer Ratnakar Shetty as the Event Managing Director
The most important aspect would be the security arrangements and a special team has been formed for the same..

The ICC full members- Australia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, South Africa, India, Zimbabwe, England, West Indies, New Zealand and the affiliate members follow (first 4 places in qualifying tournament) - Canada, Kenya, Netherlands and Ireland...



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