India placed with South Africa and England for WC 2011

By Rahul Bajaj
for Cricketain.com

Published: October 8, 2009

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Johannesburg: The teams which most cricket lovers like to watch playing against each other find themselves in different groups for the 2011 World Cup. India and Pakistan, Australia and South Africa are in different groups with the groupings for the tournament, to be held in the subcontinent, being approved on the second day of the ICC Board meeting in Johannesburg.

The 14 teams have been divided into two groups of seven as against the four groups that were there in the last edition. The groupings also made sure that Pakistan wouldn’t have to play any of their league games in India. India has been placed in Group B along with England and South Africa with West Indies, Bangladesh, Netherlands and Ireland making up the rest of the group.

“In Group A there will be Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Canada and Kenya. In Group B there will be India, South Africa, England, West Indies, Bangladesh, Ireland and Netherlands,” the ICC said in a statement.

The ICC said that it has learned from its past mistakes and taken steps to make the 2011 edition shorter than the 2007 one. The new format will not only reduce the number of games from 51 to 49 but will also shorten the duration of the tournament by at least a week. The ICC came under severe criticism after the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies for dragging the tournament too long. The last version had lasted six weeks with the 16 teams divided into groups of 4 each, and the top two teams from each group qualifying for the Super Eights.

“We’re on record as saying that we acknowledged that 2007 might have been longer than desired. So we want to take a week off, if not more,” Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, said after the meeting. “We wanted to get the balance correct. We had one provision that we would not have wanted more than two of the subcontinent teams in any one group. The rest depends on where you stand in the rankings and you use the formula that allocates the teams, dependent on your positioning in the ranking tables.”

David Morgan, the ICC President, added, “We’re already certain that it will be shorter. You can be sure that we at the ICC had learnt from past mistakes. I mean there is no doubt that the ICC World Cup in the Caribbean was unsuccessful in some aspects.”

The ICC also expressed happiness on the success of the recently concluded ICC Champions Trophy, with players like Ricky Ponting and Daniel Vettori already hailing the revamped structure of the tournament. “I think most experts of the game and the opinion-makers are now convinced the ICC Champions Trophy definitely has a place in the cricket calendar,” Morgan said. “It also gives me immense pleasure to say the quality of cricket we have seen in the last 14 days proves that 50-over format can comfortably co-exist with the traditional five-day Test and the short 20-over formats.”

India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka will be hosting the event in 2011 after Pakistan was stripped of its hosting rights due to security concerns in the country. India will host 29 out of the 49 matches, including a semi-final and the final with Sri Lanka hosting the other semi-final.

The meeting also approved the schedule for next year’s Under-19 World Cup scheduled in January in New Zealand. “The full schedule will be posted on the ICC website shortly,” the statement read.

The meeting also discussed ways to promote test cricket with the traditional version of the game losing popularity due to the advent of T20 cricket. The ICC, in the meeting, decided to look at the concept of day/night tests more seriously. “A competitive analysis of other sports and entertainment products will be carried out by a working group and there will be further research carried out into various proposals for product development and variation of Test cricket, such as day/night Test matches,” the ICC said.

“The working group will be chaired by ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat and will include a representative from each Full Member as well as the ICC General Manager Commercial, Campbell Jamieson and ICC General Manager Cricket, David Richardson,” it added.

Groups for the 2011 World Cup:

Group A – Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Canada, and Kenya.

Group B – India, South Africa, England, West Indies, Bangladesh, Ireland, Netherlands.

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