PCB wish list: Let's have 2003 World Cup format for 2011 edition

Lahore, Dec 5 (UNI) Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) wants that the 2011 World Cup which it will co-host with India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh should be played on the format of 2003 edition held in South Africa.

It has also indicated that the number of participating teams be reduced from from 16 to 14.

PCB will put forth these views at the joint World Cup Committee meeting in Bangalore later this week.

''We are very much in favour of having a 14-team format just like the 2003 World Cup. We don't want the format of the 2007 tournament,'' the PCB Chief Operating Officer Shafqat Naghmi said here.

He disclosed that seven different formats, including a single league, have been put up for consideration of the four host countries and the International Cricket Council.

''We want the 2003 format repeated,'' he said.

Naghmi was of the view that 14-team format was more viable as it guaranteed every team to play minimum six matches in the first round even if it was eliminated.

''We don't support the format under which 2007 World Cup was played in the West Indies where if a good team has one bad day it goes out of the tournament. We will not support this format at all,'' he said.

Both Pakistan and India were eliminated in the first round of this year's World Cup.

UNI