Cricket World Cup warm-up match schedule announced
The International Cricket Council has announced the schedule of warm-up matches. They are set to be played before the commencement of the 2011 Cricket World Cup that will be hosted in the Indian-subcontinent with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747 and Sri Lanka sharing the matches of the tournament.
The warm-up matches will be played in the Indian cities of Bangalore, Chennai and Nagpur.
The matches in Bangladesh will take place in Chittagong and Dhaka, with Colombo and Pallekele staging the Sri Lankan share of matches.
The tournament is set to run between February and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/March-c74391 with India hosting the lion’s share of the matches. 14 leading teams from all over the world compete for the ultimate prize in fifty over cricket.
The warm-up matches will be played from 12th to 18th February and all participating teams will have two matches each to play in order to limber up for the big games when the tournament starts.
The actual schedule of the tournament was announced earlier in the year. There are a total of two groups that have been finalized with each group including seven teams.
Group A includes four-time champions, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746, who would be defending their title. The formidable Aussies have won every edition of the tournament since 1999 besides recording a win in the 1987 edition.
Besides the Australians there are two former champions in the group, these include the 1992 Champions Pakistan and the winners of 1996 edition Sri Lanka.
The pool also includes New Zealand, Canada and Kenya. The other group has four major teams, hosts and 1983 Champions India, besides two-time champions the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760, England and the perennial chokers of World level competitions South Africa.
The line-up is completed with minnows Ireland, Netherlands and the third co-host Bangladesh.
The top four teams in each group would qualify for the quarter-finals, followed by the semi-finals and the grand final at the refurbished Wankhede stadium in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mumbai-c820.
Meanwhile, the critics of the game have questioned the format of the tournament drawing parallels to the format of the 1996 World cup which was held in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
A total of 12 teams were taking part in the event yet, the last eight were more or less confirmed even before the start of the tournament.
As a consequence the tournament dragged on with a number of inconsequential matches. Many felt that the World cup was worth seven matches, including the quarters, semis and the final that was won by Sri Lanka.
This time around, again a surfeit of meaningless matches are set to take place, as at most nine teams would be contesting for the eight quarter-final slots. Barring a miracle, none of the minnows is expected to make it to the knock-out stage of the competition.
Warm-up matches schedule:
February 12: West Indies v Kenya in Colombo, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 v Netherlands in Pallekele, Bangladesh v Canada in Chittagong, New Zealand v Ireland in Nagpur, Zimbabwe v South Africa in Chennai.
February 13: India v Australia in Bangalore
February 15: http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Zimbabwe-c3045 in Nagpur,
February 16: Sri Lanka v West Indies in Colombo, England v http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 in Chennai,
February 18: England v http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 in Dhaka
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