03 August 2004	Tuesday	16 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

COLOMBO, Aug 2: Asian cricket chiefs want to change the way host countries for cricket's World Cup are rotated so that more tournaments are held in Asia, which boasts about 40 percent of the major cricket-playing nations , the region's top cricket official said.

The current system brings every fifth tournament to Asia, but regional sports officials think that every third tournament should be held here, Asian Cricket Council President Jagmohan Dalmiya said.

"We don't think it's fair," said Dalmiya, a former chief of the International Cricket Council. "Asia has four out of 10 Test-playing countries, we want a proportional distribution of the World Cup's hosting right." "We want every third World Cup to be hosted by Asia," he said.

Asian sports officials have decided to seek the change before the host country for the 2011 World Cup is decided, he said. Two out of three World Cups were hosted in Asia from 1987 to 1996, when the ICC adopted a new formula to rotate the competition between five regions: Britain, the West Indies, Africa - comprising South Africa and Zimbabe, Oceana - comprising Australian and New Zealand, and Asia.

"After the 1999 World Cup in England and the 2003 tournament in South Africa, the 2007 event should have come to Asia," Dalmiya said. The 2007 World Cup will be staged in the West Indies.

"Asia's numerical strength should not go against it," Dalmiya said. Dalmiya said the 2006 Asian Games' hosts - Qatar - were keen to include cricket as a medal sport, but the ACC needs to clarify the status of expatriates who have a big presence in some national squads.

The Olympic Council of Asia said last month it was keen to have a six-team cricket competition in the 2006 Asian Games. "We're not averse to the idea of cricket featuring in the Asian Games," said Dalmiya. "But we first need to sort out the issue of expatriates ... whether or not they would be allowed to play."

A large number of Indian and Pakistani immigrants feature in the teams of several countries. They have residential status in those nations - which is acceptable to the ICC - but still travel on their original passports. -Agencies