September 18, 2007	Tuesday	Ramazan 05, 1428

LAHORE, Sept 17: The International Cricket Council (ICC) will take input from the four host countries of the World Cup-2011 in preparing the format of the event which is a welcome departure from the past practices of designing it unilaterally, Dawn learnt on Monday.

The ICC took the decision after accepting a demand from the host countries Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in a meeting held during the ongoing Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa.

The four Asian countries forwarded the proposal, pleading that since they know their local conditions for logistics and travelling facilities, they could make useful contribution in the format to avoid long distance travelling and other such problems.

The host countries emphasised on the ICC that in the World Cup-2007 held in the West Indies, several teams faced inconvenience due to the frequent, long distance travelling.

The hosts also appreciated the format of the Twenty20 World Cup where every country is playing matches of each round in one city.

Sources told Dawn that ICC’s commercial manager Campbell Jamieson would also sit in the meeting of the four countries over the format. The chief executives of the four hosts countries would hold a meeting in Pakistan which could be held some time in October this year. Later the head of the four countries would meet in India sometime in November during the Pakistan-India series to further discuss the format before presenting it to the ICC to give final touches to it.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has also given its consent for participation in a proposed Twenty20 tournament. The proposal for the event has been given to the ICC by a recognised bank of the West Indies and will be an annual event. The bank had made the proposal to the ICC and the organisers have fixed a lucrative amount of $20 million as prizemoney.

The PCB, however, has demanded to the ICC to also give a share of the amount as participating fees to the teams. According to the proposal, the bank would form its own team comprising superstar cricketers to play against the Test playing countries.