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World Cup final remains one match, says ICC head
Melbourne, Nov 28: Plans for a best-of-three final at the 2007 cricket World Cup have been rejected, but the tournament in the West Indies will be structured differently from its predecessor, the International Cricket Council said today.
Melbourne, Nov 28: Plans for a best-of-three final at the 2007 cricket World Cup have been rejected, but the tournament in the West Indies will be structured differently from its predecessor, the International Cricket Council said today.
The ICC has decided upon four groups of four teams to contest an initial round-robin stage with each group confined to an island, Chief Executive Malcolm Speed said.
The top two from each group go to an eight-team round robin involving six matches each teams which met in the previous stage not required to play each other again. The top four then proceed to a standard knockout semifinal stage and then a final.
It is a marked change from the 2003 event in South Africa where two groups of seven contested qualification for a group of six, then semifinals and final.
Speed had lobbied for a best-of-three final, while there had also been discussion on a round-robin semifinal or best-of-three semifinals.
"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. "It was a rare loss for me on that argument."
Bureau Report
The top two from each group go to an eight-team round robin involving six matches each teams which met in the previous stage not required to play each other again. The top four then proceed to a standard knockout semifinal stage and then a final.
It is a marked change from the 2003 event in South Africa where two groups of seven contested qualification for a group of six, then semifinals and final.
Speed had lobbied for a best-of-three final, while there had also been discussion on a round-robin semifinal or best-of-three semifinals.
"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. "It was a rare loss for me on that argument."
Bureau Report