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Asian nations to make joint bid for 2011 World Cup
India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will make a joint bid to host the 2011 cricket World Cup, it was revealed yesterday.
- By K.R. Nayar, Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:31 May 3, 2009
Lahore: India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will make a joint bid to host the 2011 cricket World Cup, it was revealed yesterday.
"The four Test nations from Asia have reached an understanding and a written bid will be made in the next few days," Sharad Pawar, President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), said.
"We will be informing the International Cricket Council soon after discussions with all the boards. Matches will be held in all the four countries."
Pawar said he had been in talks with the Pakistan board chief Shaharyar Khan.
Khan said although Australia was due to host the 2011 World Cup they said they would withdraw should there be a joint South Asia bid.
Pakistan and India jointly hosted the 1987 World Cup after England hosted the first three editions of the tournament in 1975, 1979 and 1983.
Sri Lanka joined Pakistan and India also hosted the 1996 tournament.
The next World Cup is scheduled to be held in the West Indies in 2007. It was also revealed that an Ashes style series between India-Pakistan series will only be held every two years.
"We have decided to have this series just like the Ashes series," said Pawar. "This is mainly to avoid the overkill by constantly playing between the two countries. India and Pakistan will play Test series every two years, but the number of Tests and one-dayers will be decided later."
Khan felt that the two-year gap was crucial to the success of the series.
"We think that it won't be an overkill because the eagerness is there and we don't think the two-year period will kill the excitement," he said
Pawar said that limited-overs series of either three or five matches will be played between India and Pakistan every year, but added that some could be played at a neutral venue.
"It could be in UAE or venues in the United States of America, but we will resume the One-day series as a means of spreading the game in these regions among the people from South Asia," added Pawar.
When asked to clarify the name of the venues, Pawar said, "It could be Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, New Jersey or California. The venue will be decided based on the following for the game and the facilities available there."
Pawar also revealed that in future the Ranji trophy champions of India and the Quaid-e-Azam trophy winners of Pakistan would play against each other.
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