THE 2011 World Cup will be considerably shorter than the much-criticised 2007 version, with the International Cricket Council last night revealing a new format and vowing to learn from the mistakes made two-and-a-half years ago in the Caribbean.
The new structure for the tournament in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, which will see the overall number of games reduced from 51 to 49, will take over from the much-criticised six-week format of the last World Cup which began with four groups of four and progressed to a Super Eight stage.
“We’re already certain that it will be shorter. You can be sure that we at the ICC had learnt from past mistakes,” ICC president David Morgan said following a two-day board meeting in Johannesburg.
ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat added: “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.”
England will face India and South Africa in an expanded seven-team group in the first round. England were placed in Group B, with the West Indies, Bangladesh, Ireland and Holland also awaiting them.
