ICC World Cup Cricket 2011 Schedule

The 14th edition of ICC World Cup cricket tournament will be co-hosted by three South Asian test playing counties: Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka. ICC World Cup 2011 kicks off with the opening ceremony scheduled to take place at the Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur in Bangladesh on 17 February 2011. The same venue will host the opening game of the tournament between Bangladesh and India on 19 February. Out of total 49 matches in the tournament, India will host highest 29 games including a quarter final and the tournament final. Sri Lanka will organize 12 matches including a quarter final as well as a semi final, while Bangladesh will stage 8 games including 2 quarter finals. Except the opening game, India will play all of their group stage matches at home; while Bangladesh and Sri Lanka will play the group stage matches in front of their home crowd.


India will host its first match on 20 February when Kenya and New Zealand will face each other at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk in Chennai. The first game in Sri Lanka will be held on the same day at Hambantota where Sri Lankan team will take on Canada. Pakistan was one of the co-hosts of the tournament initially, but was stripped off the host status on security ground by ICC. Pakistan will play all of their matches in Sri Lanka unless they reach the semi final. If Pakistan can get into the last four of the tournament, they have to travel to India.


Tournament Venues
All of the 49 matches will be held in 13 different venues across the three countries. Except two new venues in Sri Lanka (Hambantota and Pallekele), the rest of them are test venues including India’s 8 well-known test grounds.


India
MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai,
Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad,
Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground, Nagpur,
Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi,
Eden Gardens, Kolkata,
M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore,
Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh,
Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

Bangladesh
Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur, Dhaka
Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, Chittagong

Sri Lanka
Hambantota,
Pallekele,
R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo

Format of the Tournament
There are 14 teams who will be participating in the tournament including 10 test playing nations and 4 associate member countries. The test playing teams have automatically qualified for the tournament, while the 4 associate members have come through the qualifying tournament held in South Africa earlier this year. The four associate members are: Ireland, Canada, Netherlands and Kenya.

The format of ICC World Cup 2011 is not same to that of the previous world cup that took place in West Indies in 2007. All of the 14 teams are divided into two groups of 7 teams each. In the group stage, each team will play against all other group members once in a round robin league system.

Group A: Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Canada and Kenya
Group B: India, South Africa, England, West Indies, Bangladesh, Ireland and Netherlands.

In 2007 world cup, there was a ‘Super Eight’ phase involving 8 teams who qualified through group stage, and four best teams from ‘Super Eight’ progressed to the semi final. However, there is no super eight phase in 2011 world cup. In stead, top four teams from each group in terms of points achieved will qualify for the quarter final. There are four quarter finals scheduled to take place on 23 March, 24 March, 25 March and 26 March. That means knock out stage starts just after the group stage. Four winners of the four quarter finals will get into the semi final of the tournament. The winners of the semi finals will meet each other in the tournament final at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on 2 April 2009.

The probable reason behind the format change is perhaps to ensure that each of the participating teams play at least 6 games even if they fail to qualify for the quarter final. Last year, two test playing nations: India and Pakistan- failed to reach the ‘Super Eight’ round and had to go back home, having played only 2 matches. The early exit of the two cricket powerhouses caused huge loss for the TV channels, sponsors as well as for those who bought time slots for TV commercials beforehand to promote their products. That is why, ICC has now ensured that each of the teams will play at least 6 games in the 2011 tournament.

The full schedule of the ICC World Cup 2011 tournament:

Match	Date	Competing Teams	Time	Venue
No Match	Feb 17 2011 Thu	Opening Ceremony of ICC World Cup 2011	TBA	Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur
Group Stage	Feb 19 2011 Sat	India vs Bangladesh	TBA	Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur
	Feb 20 2011 Sun	Sri Lanka vs Canada	TBA	Hambantota
		Kenya vs New Zealand	TBA	MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai
	Feb 21 2011 Mon	Australia vs Zimbabwe	TBA	Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad
	Feb 22 2011 Tue	England vs Netherlands	TBA	Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground, Nagpur
	Feb 23 2011 Wed	Kenya vs Pakistan	TBA	Hambantota
	Feb 24 2011 Thu	South Africa vs West Indies	TBA	Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
	Feb 25 2011 Fri	Bangladesh vs Ireland	TBA	Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur
		Australia vs New Zealand	TBA	Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground, Nagpur
	Feb 26 2011 Sat	Pakistan vs Sri Lanka	TBA	Colombo
	Feb 27 2011 Sun	India vs England	TBA	Eden Gardens, Kolkata
	Feb 28 2011 Mon	Netherlands vs West Indies	TBA	Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
		Canada vs Zimbabwe	TBA	Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground, Nagpur
	Mar 1 2011 Tue	Kenya vs Sri Lanka	TBA	Colombo
	Mar 2 2011 Wed	England vs Ireland	TBA	M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
	Mar 3 2011 Thu	Canada vs Pakistan	TBA	Colombo
		Netherlands vs South Africa	TBA	Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh
	Mar 4 2011 Fri	Bangladesh vs West Indies	TBA	Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur
		New Zealand vs Zimbabwe	TBA	Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad
	Mar 5 2011 Sat	Australia vs Sri Lanka	TBA	Colombo
	Mar 6 2011 Sat	India vs Ireland	TBA	M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
		England vs South Africa	TBA	MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai
	Mar 7 2011 Mon	Canada vs Kenya	TBA	Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
	Mar 8 2011 Tue	New Zealand vs Pakistan	TBA	Pallekele
	Mar 9 2011 Wed	India vs Netherlands	TBA	Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
	Mar 10 2011 Thu	Sri Lanka vs Zimbabwe	TBA	Pallekele
	Mar 11 2011 Fri	Bangladesh vs England	TBA	Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, Chittagong
		Ireland vs West Indies	TBA	Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh
	Mar 12 2011 Sat	India vs South Africa	TBA	Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground, Nagpur
	Mar 13 2011 Sun	Canada vs New Zealand	TBA	Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
		Australia vs Kenya	TBA	M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
	Mar 14 2011 Mon	Bangladesh vs Netherlands	TBA	Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, Chittagong
		Pakistan vs Zimbabwe	TBA	Pallekele
	Mar 15 2011 Tue	Ireland vs South Africa	TBA	Eden Gardens, Kolkata
	Mar 16 2011 Wed	Australia vs Canada	TBA	M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore
	Mar 17 2011 Thu	England vs West Indies	TBA	MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai
	Mar 18 2011 Fri	New Zealand vs Sri Lanka	TBA	Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
		Ireland vs Netherlands	TBA	Eden Gardens, Kolkata
	Mar 19 2011 Sat	Bangladesh vs South Africa	TBA	Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur
		Australia vs Pakistan	TBA	Colombo
	Mar 20 2011 Sun	Kenya vs Zimbabwe	TBA	Eden Gardens, Kolkata
		India vs West Indies	TBA	MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai
Quarter Final	Mar 23 2011 Sat	TBA vs TBA	TBA	Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur
	Mar 24 2011 Thu	TBA vs TBA	TBA	Colombo
	Mar 25 2011 Fri	TBA vs TBA	TBA	Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur
	Mar 26 2011 Sat	TBA vs TBA	TBA	Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad
Semi Final	Mar 29 2011 Tue	TBA vs TBA	TBA	Colombo
	Mar 30 2011 Wed	TBA vs TBA	TBA	Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh
Final	Apr 2 2011 Sat	TBA vs TBA	TBA	Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai