New Zealand, Australia on 2011 World Cup standby

Wellington, Feb2 1 (ANI): The 2011 cricket world cup which is scheduled to be held in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, can be shifted to New Zealand and Australia as part of a contingency plan if terrorism continues to threaten sport in the subcontinent.

New Zealand Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan admitted that there was some contingency planning involving New Zealand, and added that it was vital for the sport's existence that India continued to host tours and events.

"You cannot move the timing of the tournament, in March-April, so really there's only Australia-New Zealand and South Africa who could host it," Stuff.co.nz quoted Vaughan, as saying.

Vaughan, though, was adamant the tournament would go ahead as planned and was hopeful that New Zealand would tour India as scheduled at the end of the year.

"We've got to find a way to make this work because Asia is the heartbeat of cricket in the present day. Obviously, players need to be safe, but we cannot run away when a threat is made," he said.

"By tightening the security measures around the teams we somehow have to make it safe otherwise the sport will struggle to survive if we cannot find a solution.India is so important and you cannot envisage a scenario when you cannot tour India - it's not worth thinking about," he added.

Vaughan said that assessing security for the India tour would be critical.

"The host's security plans are vital. I'd go anywhere in the world if there was the right security plan. I'd go to Iraq, if the right security was in place," he said. (ANI)