LONDON, March 1: Australia and New Zealand have submitted a bid covering both the 2011 and 2015 World Cups and England want to host the 2015 event, the ICC said on Wednesday.

Organisers of a joint bid by Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have requested a three-week extension to the deadline of Feb 28 for their bid for the 2011 event.

The 2007 event will take place in West Indies.

The International Cricket Council said in a statement it had also received several bids to host the Champions Trophy and a possible Twenty20 world championship, which could take place as early as September 2007.

“We have been impressed by the quality of many of the

bids and they will present the ICC Board with a good range of options when it meets to review the scheduling and hosting of these events in March,” ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed said.

The ICC’s executive board meeting will take place in Dubai on March 20-21 when it will consider submissions for its cricket events up to 2015, as well as the issue of late applications.

The board will consider recommendations made in February by the ICC chief executives’ committee regarding an annual events schedule that would include a Twenty20 world championship and a shorter-format Champions Trophy.

It is also expected to make “in principle” decisions on the hosting of many of the events, the ICC said.

Final approval on the hosting of the major events will be given at its annual conference in July.

England, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Scotland, Malaysia and United Arab Emirates have submitted bids to host a potential Twenty20 world championship.

Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates and West Indies have put themselves forward for future Champions Trophy tournaments.—Reuters