June 19, 2007	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 03, 1428

BHURBAN, June 18: The format of the 2011 World Cup cricket tournament will be discussed with the International Cricket Council (ICC), it was decided at the first meeting of the Central Organising Committee of the 2011 edition here on Monday.

This was announced by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Dr Nasim Ashraf while speaking at a press briefing after the inaugural meeting of the committee here.

Dr Nasim was flanked by BCCI President Sharad Pawar, Chief Executive Officer of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), Duleep Mendis, and Chief Executive of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) Mahmudur Rahman.

The PCB boss said the terms of reference and the role of the central organising committee for 2011 World Cup would also be discussed at the ICC board meeting in London next week.

Dr Nasim revealed that all the venues for the matches had been finalised, adding that Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad and Rawalpindi will be the venues for the 14 matches to be hosted by Pakistan and that one of the semi-finals would be staged in Colombo.

Pakistan will stage 14 matches as part of the India-Pakistan-Sri Lanka-Bangladesh (IPSB) Cricket World Cup 2011 including a semi-final to be played at Lahore.

India has been chosen to host the final of the mega event to be co-hosted by Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Dhaka has been selected as the venue for the opening ceremony.

Dr Nasim further said that according to a decision Local Organising Committees (LOCs) for each country will be set up by Nov 7 this year to commence the work on infrastructure development and stadiums, adding that the LOCs will also explore the possibility of common visas for the 2011 World Cup officials, players and media personnel with the respective governments and begin work to ensure adequate media facilities at all venues of the 2011 World Cup.

On the venues’ development he said the ICC would be requested for a special grant to upgrade the 2011 World Cup centres as was the case in the 2007 World Cup.

The Central Organising Committee will contain twelve members with each host country’s cricket board having three representatives. Sharad Pawar will be the president of the committee while Dr Nasim will be its secretary. Sri Lanka’s Sujeeva Rajapakse and Mahbubul Anam of Bangladesh will be treasurer and assistant secretary of the committee, respectively.

On making the cricket’s 2011 extravaganza exciting, attractive and spectator-friendly, the PCB chief said the tickets prices would be based on local people’s purchasing power to ensure fans’ maximum possible attendance at the stadiums.

To a query Dr Nasim said a media policy for the event was in the process of development, ensuring the cricket’s 2011 spectacle will be a media-friendly event too with adequate facilities at all the venues.

Asked if a funding formula for hosting the media policy had been devised, he said the money would be spent by the respective boards and no joint account will be opened, adding Pakistan and India had already reached an agreement on the distribution of funds in this regard.

In the meantime, Pawar told reporters that the central secretariat of the organising committee will be based in Lahore, hoping the committee would come up to the expectations to arrange the events in a dignified manner.

Meanwhile, Mahmudur Rahman promised to make all out efforts to make the 2011 global event as the best World Cup ever played, while saying Bangladesh has never hosted a World Cup and has a lot to learn from Pakistan and India.

The next meeting of the organising committee would be held in India in November-December 2007.