Cricket Special Report: Hosts of the ICC Cricket World Cup
The ICC Cricket World Cup is a recurring tournament which takes place after every four years. However, with the advent of T20 cricket, it is feared that the 50 over format of the game might be at risk. Hence, many believe that the fate of ODI cricket rests
on the success of the upcoming World Cup which is due to start on the 19th of February 2011.
The hosts of the tournament this time around will be India, Sri Lanka and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747
(Pakistan have been eliminated from the list of hosts after security concerns amongst participating teams rose).They are considered to be highly suited to host ODI cricket at the moment as the tournament promises to draw huge crowds into the stadium
and generate high revenues, especially in India. The 2011 World Cup will be the third time this prized competition will be staged in Asia.
The inaugural cricket World Cup was played in 1975 with 8 participating teams and was held in England. They went on to host the subsequent events in 1979 and 1983 as well. This was mainly due to the fact that none of the other cricket playing nations had
the resources and management capabilities to organize such a high scale tournament at that time.
In 1987, the World Cup was held in Asia for the first time with Pakistan and India acting as joint hosts. The event being held in the Sub-Continent forced a slight change in the format of ODI cricket of the time. The overs were reduced from 60 per each side
to 50, in order to take into account the fact that day light in the Sub-Continent tends to fade away far more quickly compared to England.
The following World Cup of 1992 held in Australia and New Zealand is seen as the pioneer of the way modern limited over cricket is played today. It was the first time that the participating teams wore colour outfits and the traditional red ball was replaced
by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/A-White-c41360 one. The 1992 competition was also stage to the first World Cup matches played under lights.
Asia was to host its second World Cup in 1996 with the addition of Sri Lanka as co-hosts to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 and West Indies
refused to travel to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758, to play their matches against the hosts, citing security concerns. After repeated efforts from the ICC, to convince the two sides on playing the matches, failed, the matches were awarded to Sri Lanka.
The next World Cup was hosted by England in 1999. Although England were the official hosts of the tournament, some of the matches were also played in Wales, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Scotland-c756. Even though this was the fourth occasion England was hosting the
tournament, they were criticized by many for not having enough capacity in the stadiums to accommodate the high amount of spectators wishing to witness the matches.
The eighth edition of the World Cup in 2003 was hosted by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757, Zimbabwe and Kenya. The matches to be played in Zimbabwe and Kenya were encircled with the same controversy Sri Lanka faced during the1996 competition. Following political turmoil in
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Kenya-c752 for their World Cup tie stating issues regarding player safety at the venue. Consequently, Zimbabwe and Kenya were awarded the matches and
eventually both England and New Zealand had to pay dearly for their decision during the Super Sixes stages.
The controversies of 2003, and perhaps all the other World Cups, was over shadowed by a less than satisfactory 2007 World Cup, hosted by West Indies. Not only was there disagreement in choosing the Caribbean nations to host the competition, the tournament
itself was plagued with unfortunate events. The elimination of cricketing giants http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 and Pakistan in the first round, the death of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer and the low crowd turn out in the stadium due to high ticket prices are some of the reasons why
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 will be remembered, as the hosts of the ICC Cricket World Cup, for all the wrong reasons
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