Tuesday 5 April 2011

2011 Cricket World Cup's Bids

The ICC originally announced its decision as to which countries would host the 2011 World Cup on 30 April 2006. Australia and New Zealand also bid for the tournament, and a successful Australasian bid for the 2011 World Cup would have seen a 50–50 split in games, with the final still up for negotiation. The Trans–Tasman bid, Beyond Boundaries, was the only bid for 2011 delivered to ICC headquarters in Dubai ahead of the 1 March deadline. Considerable merits of the Australasian bid were the superior venues and infrastructure and the total support of both the New Zealand and Australian governments on tax and customs issues during the tournament, according to Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland.The New Zealand government had also given assurance that Zimbabwe would be allowed to compete in the tournament, following political discussions in the country over whether their cricket team should be allowed to tour Zimbabwe in 2005.

ICC President Ehsan Mani said the extra time taken by the Asian block to hand over its bid compliance book had harmed the four-nation bid. However, when the time came to vote, Asia won the hosting rights by seven votes to three.The Pakistan Cricket Board has revealed that it was the vote of the West Indies Cricket Board that swung the matter, as the Asian bid had the support of the four bidding countries along with South Africa and Zimbabwe. It was reported in Pakistani newspaper Dawn that the Asian countries promised to hold fund-raising events for West Indian cricket during the 2007 World Cup, which may have influenced the vote.However, chairman of the Monitoring Committee of the Asian bid, I. S. Bindra, said it was their promise of extra profits in the region of US$400 million that swung the vote,that there "was no quid pro quo for their support",and that playing the West Indies had "nothing to do with the World Cup bid".

The ICC prefers to rotate World Cup venues between major cricket playing nations. The World Cups have been hosted by England (three times: 1975, 1979, 1983), India/Pakistan (1987), Australia/New Zealand (1992), India/Pakistan/Sri Lanka (1996), England/Netherlands (1999), South Africa/Zimbabwe/Kenya) (2003) and West Indies (2007). For the 2011 World Cup Australia/New Zealand were a strong contender ahead of India/Pakistan/Sri Lanka/Bangladesh because they had not hosted a World Cup since 1992. In the final voting India won because they argued that since they were a bigger group of countries they should be assigned a World Cup more frequently. Australia/New Zealand were awarded the 2015 World Cup.

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