Cricket
The following 14 teams qualified for the final tournament.
Preparations
Pakistan stripped of co-host status
Pakistan was stripped of its rights as co-host of the 2011 World Cup by the ICC on 17 April 2009[16][17] due to ongoing concerns about the "uncertain security situation" prevailing in the country, especially in the aftermath of the 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka national cricket team in Lahore.
It is estimated that the PCB will lose $10.5 million due to the tournament being taken away from them.[18] This figure only includes the match-fee of $750,000 per match guaranteed by the ICC. The overall loss to the PCB and the Pakistani economy is expected to be much greater.
On 9 April 2009, PCB chairman Ijaz Butt revealed that they had issued a legal notice to oppose ICC's decision.[19] However, the ICC claims that PCB is still a co-host and they have only shifted the matches out of Pakistan.[20] Pakistan had proposed that South Asia host the 2015 World Cup and Australia/New Zealand host 2011, however this option did not find favour with their co-hosts and hence didn't materialise.[21]
Allocation of matches
On 11 April 2005, Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Shaharyar Khan announced an agreement about the allocation of games.[22] The original plan involved India hosting the final, while Pakistan and Sri Lanka would host the semi-finals.[23] and the opening ceremony will take place in Bangladesh.[24]
After being stripped of its co-host status, Pakistan made the bid to host its home games in the cities of UAE as a neutral home venue. This is a result of Pakistan playing matches in the preceding months in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah. The pitches in these stadiums have also been developed to suit the Pakistani players. This would not have harmed any timing schedules as there are regular flights from the city of Mumbai to Dubai.
However, on 28 April 2009, the ICC announced the re-allocation of matches originally intended to be played in Pakistan. As a result, India will now host 29 matches across eight venues including the final and one semi-final; Sri Lanka will host 12 in three venues, including one semi-final; while Bangladesh will stage eight at two grounds as well as the opening ceremony on 17 February 2011.[25]
On 1 June 2010, the first phase of tickets for the 2011 World Cup in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh were put on sale following a meeting of the tournament's Central Organising Committee in Mumbai. The tickets were priced affordably, with the cheapest costing 20 US cents in Sri Lanka, the committee said.[26] In January 2011, the ICC declared the Eden Gardens ground in Kolkata, India to be unfit and unlikely to be complete by 27 February when it was scheduled to host a match between India and England. As a result, the match was moved to Bangalore.
Cricket is a bat-and-ball team sport. Many variations exist, with its most popular form played on an oval-shaped outdoor arena known as a cricket field at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard (20.12 m) long pitch that is the focus of the game. A game (or match) is contested between two teams of eleven players each. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the runs scored by the batting team. A run is scored by the striking batsman hitting the ball with his bat, running to the opposite end of the pitch and touching the crease there without being dismissed. The teams switch between batting and fielding at the end of an innings.
There are also variations in the length of a game of cricket. In professional cricket this ranges from a limit of 20 overs per side (Twenty20) to a game played over 5 days (Test cricket, which is the highest level of the game). Depending on the form of the match being played, there are different rules that govern how a game is won, lost, drawn or tied. The rules of two-innings games are known as the Laws of Cricket and maintained by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC); additional Standard Playing Conditions for Test matches and One Day Internationals augment these laws.[1] In one version of Indoor Cricket, matches include just 6 players per side and include two 12-over innings.[2]
Cricket was first documented as being played in southern England in the 16th century. By the end of the 18th century, it had developed to the point where it had become the national sport of England. The expansion of the British Empire led to cricket being played overseas and by the mid-19th century the first international matches were being held. The ICC is the game's governing body and currently has 105 member countries.[3] Cricket is most popular in the Test playing countries.
2011 Cricket World Cup
The 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup is the tenth Cricket World Cup and is being played in Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka. It is Bangladesh's first time co-hosting a World Cup. All matches in the World Cup will be accorded One Day International status, with all matches being played over 50 overs. Fourteen national cricket teams will compete in the tournament, including ten full members and four associate members.[1] The World Cup will take place between February and early April 2011, with the first match played on 19 February 2011 with co-hosts India and Bangladesh facing off at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur, Dhaka.[2] The opening ceremony was held on 17 February 2011 at Bangabandhu National Stadium, Dhaka, two days before the start of the tournament,[3] with the final on 2 April 2011 at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.
The World Cup was also supposed to be co-hosted by Pakistan, but in the wake of the 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka national cricket team in Lahore, the International Cricket Council (ICC) decided to strip Pakistan of its hosting rights.[4] The headquarters of the organising committee were originally situated in Lahore, but have now been shifted to Mumbai.[5] Pakistan was supposed to hold 14 matches, including one semi-final.[6] Eight of Pakistan's matches were awarded to India, four to Sri Lanka and two to Bangladesh.[7]
The biggest upset of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 has been the defeat of England by Ireland. Ireland's Kevin O'Brien made 100 in just 50 balls, the fastest World Cup Century.
Host selection
Bids
The ICC originally announced its decision which countries would host the 2011 World Cup on 30 April 2006. Australia and New Zealand also bid for the tournament, and a successful Australasian bid for the 2011 World Cup would have seen a 50–50 split in games, with the final still up for negotiation. The Trans–Tasman bid, Beyond Boundaries, was the only bid for 2011 delivered to ICC headquarters in Dubai ahead of the 1 March deadline. Considerable merits of the Australasian bid were the superior venues and infrastructure and the total support of both the New Zealand and Australian governments on tax and customs issues during the tournament, according to Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland.[8] The New Zealand government had also given assurance that Zimbabwe would be allowed to compete in the tournament, following political discussions in the country whether their cricket team should be allowed to tour Zimbabwe in 2005.
ICC President Ehsan Mani said the extra time taken by the Asian block to hand over its bid compliance book had harmed the four-nation bid. However, when the time came to vote, Asia won the hosting rights by seven votes to three.[8] The Pakistan Cricket Board has revealed that it was the vote of the West Indies Cricket Board that swung the matter, as the Asian bid had the support of the four bidding countries along with South Africa and Zimbabwe.[9] It was reported in Pakistani newspaper Dawn that the Asian countries promised to hold fund-raising events for West Indian cricket during the 2007 World Cup, which may have influenced the vote.[10] However, chairman of the Monitoring Committee of the Asian bid, I. S. Bindra, said it was their promise of extra profits in the region of US$ 400 million that swung the vote,[11] that there "was no quid pro quo for their support",[12] and that playing the West Indies had "nothing to do with the World Cup bid".[12]
ICC prefers to rotate World Cup venues between major cricket playing nations. The world cups have been hosted by England (Three times 1975,1979,1983), India/Pakistan 1987, Australia/New Zealand 1992, India/Pakistan/Sri Lanka 1996, England (UK,Netherlands) 1999, South Africa (Zimbabwe,Kenya) 2003, West Indies 2007. For the 2011 World Cup Australia/New Zealand were a strong contender ahead of India/Pakistan/Sri Lanka/Bangladesh because they had not hosted a World cup since 1992. In the final voting India won because they argued that since they were a bigger group of countries they should be assigned a World cup more frequently. Due to this, Australia/New Zealand were awarded the 2015 World Cup.
Format
Late in 2007, the four host nations agreed upon a revised format for the 2011 World Cup identical to the 1996 World Cup, the only change being the no. of teams as it was 12 in 1996 and 14 in 2011. The first round of the tournament will be a round-robin in which the 14 teams are divided into 2 groups of 7 teams each. The 7 teams play each other once with the top 4 from each group qualifying for the quarter-finals.[13] The format ensures that each team gets to play a minimum of 6 matches even if they are ruled out of the tournament due to early defeats.
Qualification
Main articles: ICC World Cricket League 2007-09 and 2009 ICC World Cup Qualifier
As per ICC regulations, all 10 full members automatically qualify for the World Cup, including Zimbabwe who have given up their Test playing status until the standard of their team improves.[14]
The ICC also organised a qualifying tournament in South Africa to determine which Associate teams would participate in 2011 event. Ireland, who had been the best performing Associate nation since the last World Cup, won the tournament, beating Canada in the final. The Netherlands and Kenya also qualified by virtue of finishing third and fourth respectively.[15]
The following 14 teams qualified for the final tournament.
| Group A | Group B | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Team | Rank | Team |
| Full Members | |||
| 1 |  Australia | 2 |  India |
| 3 |  Pakistan | 4 |  South Africa |
| 5 |  New Zealand | 6 |  England |
| 7 |  Sri Lanka | 8 |  West Indies |
| 9 |  Zimbabwe | 10 |  Bangladesh |
| Associate Members | |||
| 11 |  Canada | 12 |  Ireland |
| 13 |  Kenya | 14 |  Netherlands |
Preparations
Pakistan stripped of co-host status
Pakistan was stripped of its rights as co-host of the 2011 World Cup by the ICC on 17 April 2009[16][17] due to ongoing concerns about the "uncertain security situation" prevailing in the country, especially in the aftermath of the 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka national cricket team in Lahore.
It is estimated that the PCB will lose $10.5 million due to the tournament being taken away from them.[18] This figure only includes the match-fee of $750,000 per match guaranteed by the ICC. The overall loss to the PCB and the Pakistani economy is expected to be much greater.
On 9 April 2009, PCB chairman Ijaz Butt revealed that they had issued a legal notice to oppose ICC's decision.[19] However, the ICC claims that PCB is still a co-host and they have only shifted the matches out of Pakistan.[20] Pakistan had proposed that South Asia host the 2015 World Cup and Australia/New Zealand host 2011, however this option did not find favour with their co-hosts and hence didn't materialise.[21]
Allocation of matches
On 11 April 2005, Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Shaharyar Khan announced an agreement about the allocation of games.[22] The original plan involved India hosting the final, while Pakistan and Sri Lanka would host the semi-finals.[23] and the opening ceremony will take place in Bangladesh.[24]
After being stripped of its co-host status, Pakistan made the bid to host its home games in the cities of UAE as a neutral home venue. This is a result of Pakistan playing matches in the preceding months in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah. The pitches in these stadiums have also been developed to suit the Pakistani players. This would not have harmed any timing schedules as there are regular flights from the city of Mumbai to Dubai.
However, on 28 April 2009, the ICC announced the re-allocation of matches originally intended to be played in Pakistan. As a result, India will now host 29 matches across eight venues including the final and one semi-final; Sri Lanka will host 12 in three venues, including one semi-final; while Bangladesh will stage eight at two grounds as well as the opening ceremony on 17 February 2011.[25]
On 1 June 2010, the first phase of tickets for the 2011 World Cup in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh were put on sale following a meeting of the tournament's Central Organising Committee in Mumbai. The tickets were priced affordably, with the cheapest costing 20 US cents in Sri Lanka, the committee said.[26] In January 2011, the ICC declared the Eden Gardens ground in Kolkata, India to be unfit and unlikely to be complete by 27 February when it was scheduled to host a match between India and England. As a result, the match was moved to Bangalore.