Cricket: World Cup dream revived

A bid to co-host the 2011 Cricket World Cup appears to be back on the bill.

Rugby's success will be a boon to New Zealand's bid to co-host cricket's version of the same tournament in the same year, with centrepiece stadium Eden Park set to undergo a radical overhaul.

However, New Zealand Cricket (NZC) chief executive Martin Snedden believes the Government's denying of visas to Zimbabwe's cricketers could still impact on the decision.

As revealed in the Herald on Sunday last week, the size of the Eden Park oval will be extended to comply with International Cricket Council (ICC) regulations and the angle pitch will almost certainly be adjusted so it runs from east to west, meaning it would be a more viewer-friendly ground.

There is no chance of the two tournaments clashing. It is understood there are two windows for the Rugby World Cup, June-July and September-October, while the Cricket World Cup would be played in February-March.

Snedden was reported to have talked with his Australian counterpart James Sutherland about the probability Australia would have to bid alone but told the Herald on Sunday that he was still working through the processes involved with tabling a co-hosting bid.

With Zimbabwe's further descent into the mire, ICC delegates would look churlish if they took a stand against any government taking action against the rogue state.

While ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed this week reiterated the governing body's hands-off policy on Zimbabwe, there was an indication problems within the Zimbabwe Cricket Union were reaching an untenable level after its players, including captain Tatenda Taibu, refused to play unless chairman Peter Chingoka and managing director Ozias Bvute resigned.

Speed hinted that the subject would be raised by its members soon. "This issue will come up next when Zimbabwe are to play... international cricket," he said.

The Zimbabwe issue aside, NZC should know what form the 2011 World Cup will take by February.

At present, the Global Cricket Corporation, owned by Newscorp, is the commercial rights holder for the World Cup. Its deal with the ICC ends after the World Cup in the West Indies in 2007.

"The ICC is currently working out what will comprise the next commercial package after the 2007 World Cup," Snedden said.

"So there's two steps: first what the package will comprise and, second, what events they will hold.

"That process should be finished about February, then the ICC will decide who will host those events." That will be finalised at the ICC's annual conference in June.

Snedden said the ICC still ran a "rotational-type system" that should offer a New Zealand-Australia bid hope for 2011, "but Asia will come into the mix more frequently with Bangladesh a full member nation".

- HERALD ON SUNDAY