MELBOURNE, Dec 1: Continuous terror attacks in the sub-continent has cast a shadow over the 2011 Cricket World Cup to be jointly hosted by India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh with the International Cricket Council contemplating of keeping a stand-by venue for the mega-event.

According to a report in The Daily Telegraph, the ICC is expected to discuss the issue in its Executive Council meeting in South Africa next week.

The report also stated that if the ICC decides to shift the event, Australia and New Zealand, the co-hosts in 2015, are the prime contenders for staging the tournament.Cricket Australia has already started endorsing the idea with chief executive James Sutherland saying safety and security issues surrounding the 2011 World Cup were “bound to come up” in the ICC meeting.

“It hasn’t been talked about but that may well have changed out of this Mumbai incident but one would hope the World Cup and other events that are planned for various places in the sub-continent can go ahead as planned,” he said. “But there will be plenty of things that will need to be planned in the fullness of time.”

Sutherland added he did not know if another country had already been put on standby for the 2011 tournament, and was non-committal when asked if Australia would have enough time to prepare for the event if handed over.

“I don’t know the answer to that. It’s something that down the track would need to be looked at, but we are very keen for it to go ahead where it has already been allocated.

“Let’s see how things settle down after the tragic events of Mumbai.”

Meanwhile, ICC spokesman James Fitzgerald said the game’s governing body is yet to discuss anything on the issue but if the tournament has to be shifted, the decision has to be made at the earliest.

“A decision would have to be made soon if that was to happen because we need a good run in to get the World Cup ready on time,” Fitzgerald said.

In the meantime, as CA gears up to raise security concerns with the ICC over hosting of 2011 World Cup in the subcontinent, the Indian cricket board said CA fears are “unfounded as the event is too far away.”

Responding to the issues raised by CA, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Secretary N Srinivasan said the tournament is “too far to even think about.

“Who knows what will happen in 2011? World Cup is too far to even think about,” he said.

Cricket playing nations, especially Australia, New Zealand, England and South Africa have cancelled several tours of Pakistan for security reasons.

Australia’s Federal Government have even advice the nation’s cricket team to avoid Sri Lanka because of the civil war and Bangladesh for general trouble and the latest to join the list is India, which has witnessed the deadliest terror strike in its history in the financial capital of Mumbai.—Agencies