Friday, December 14, 2007

2011 WORLD CUP WILL BE SHORTER

The 2011 world cup will be a shorter version and this decision by the subcontinent host nations.
The host boards of the 2011 World Cup are hoping to scrap the ‘Super Eights’ stage of the tournament and introduce quarterfinals to make the event fairer and shorter.

The India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh boards are said to be keen to give the bigger cricket nations more chance to qualify for the later stages after former winners India and Pakistan were both eliminated at the group stage this year in the Caribbean after shock one-off defeats.

“We want to have the eight team quarterfinals directly after the preliminary round of matches between two groups of seven,” an unnamed official from the Pakistan Cricket Board was quoted as saying by Reuters.

He added: “The format on which we have reached a consensus will save time and also provide every team a chance to play a minimum of six matches in the preliminary round before the knockout stages.”

The event in the West Indies in March and April was heavily criticised for its length of seven weeks while only three games in the group stages did not give India or Pakistan the chance to come back and instead saw Ireland qualify for the Super Eights.

Any decision agreed upon by the host boards will have to gain approval from the ICC's executive board before any decision is final.The ICC must take a final decision in this regard.

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