W/Cup cricket final one match

MELBOURNE: A proposal to stage a best-of-three final series at the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies has been rejected, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced yesterday.

ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed told a news conference that the idea had been discussed but it was decided to stick with a single winner-takes-all match. “There were some who supported (a best-of-three final), including me, but the sense in the end was that the cricket World Cup is about one match, sudden-death, best team on the day wins the World Cup,” Speed said. Speed confirmed that organisers had agreed to use a new, expanded format in 2007 with the 16 teams split into four equal pools. The top two from each pool would proceed to a Super Eight phase from which the top four would advance to the sudden-death semi-finals.

This is a departure from the format used at this year’s World Cup in South Africa when 14 teams were divided into two pools of seven with the top three from each pool going to the next stage. “It gives us the best opportunity for the best four teams to come through to the semi-final stage. That’s a major feature of this format that didn’t exist in South Africa,” said Speed. He added that each of the four pools would be staged in different islands of the West Indies to reduce the amount of travelling in the region. Speed said the United States was also being considered to host a pool but the ICC would make an announcement on the venues next year. “There is no more difficult region to run a World Cup than this....we’ve taken on a big task,” Speed said. “There will be at least one group from the United States that will bid to host matches and it will be in a competitive bidding process with the West Indian islands.”