India will organise a major part of cricket’s World Cup in 2011 after Pakistan were stripped of co-hosting rights, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said on Tuesday.
The showpiece event awarded to South Asia was thrown into turmoil earlier this month after the ICC removed Pakistan as a host nation because of security concerns, following the attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore in March.
The ICC moved swifty to put the tournament back on track, giving India a majority of matches with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh retained as co-hosts.
”We are confident of organising a very successful World Cup,” ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat told reporters after a meeting of the tournament’s organising committee here.
The World Cup secretariat was shifted from Lahore to Mumbai, while the Indian cricket board official Ratnakar Shetty was appointed the event’s managing director in place of Pakistani banker Salman Butt.
India will host 29 matches at eight venues, including one quarter-final, a semi-final and the final, Lorgat said.
Sri Lanka will organise 12 matches at three venues, including a quarter-final and semi-final, while Bangladesh gets eight games at two venues.
The Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka will host the opening ceremony on February 18 and the tournament opener the next day, besides two quarter-final matches.
The organising committee, headed by ICC vice-president Sharad Pawar of India, will include an operations and planning group comprising Bangladesh official Mahboob Alam, Indian board secretary N Srinivasan, Sri Lanka’s Duleep Mendis and Shetty.
Lorgat swept aside questions on whether Pakistan would boycott the World Cup in protest at being denied hosting rights, saying ”we will cross the bridge when we come to it.” — Sapa-AFP