Mumbai, Sept 19: The International Cricket Council's (ICC) cricket committee (management) meeting today discussed the possibility of having 16 teams for the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies. ICC's Chief Executive Officer, Malcolm Speed, told reporters here that five main issues were discussed in the two-day meeting, which concluded today, but the final decision would be taken only at the executive board meeting in the West Indies in October.

"The first point we discussed was a proposal to have 16 teams for the next world cup to be stretched over 40 days with 42 matches compared to 12 teams which participated in the 2003 World Cup in South Africa,” Speed said.
"The forthcoming world cup would have 16 teams divided in four groups of four teams who will play on round robin basis. Top two teams from each group will than move up to the next round which also would be played on round-robin league basis with four teams making it to the semi-finals,” he said.

"The second issue was the structure of matches (the formula of conducting matches) which rests with the respective cricket boards.

"The ICC will come into the picture only when the respective boards have difficulty in finding dates or venues," he added.
Bureau Report