Fifty-one games for ICC Cricket World Cup West Indies 2007

The ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 in the West Indies will feature 51 games, three fewer than the scheduled 54 games at this year's tournament the ICC announced today.

ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed said that following on from the earlier decision to adopt a sixteen team format split into four groups of four for the first round, the ICC had now settled on a modified round robin format for the second stage of the tournament.

The second stage of the tournament will feature the top two teams from each of the four groups. Each team will play six games, one game each against the teams that they have not previously played.

Teams will not play again against the side they have previously met in the first round and will instead carry over the points from this match. No other points from the first round will be carried over into the second round.

The top four teams at the end of the second stage will then progress through to sudden death semi-finals with the winners moving through to the final.

Mr Speed said that this format would provide the best possible cricket tournament for the Caribbean.

"The ICC Cricket World Cup West Indies 2007 will feature more teams but fewer games than in 2003.

"The format allows more emerging cricketing nations to take their place on the world stage but with fewer games in the first round it will ensure that the better performing teams play a greater percentage of the matches.

"The format for the second round will also ensure that the top-performing teams are given every opportunity against all of their fellow qualifiers to stake their claim for a place in the semi-finals. This will result in a competitive but fair system of determining the best teams."

Under this format, the team winning the tournament will have played 11 games, the same number of matches as Australia played on its way to winning this year's tournament.

Decisions on playing conditions such as the mechanism to split teams that finish on the same number of points, the use of reserve days, the use of net run rate and the possible use of bonus points will be made closer to the event.

Mindful of the unique logistical challenges that will be present in the West Indies the top eight teams leading into the tournament will be provided with a pre-determined schedule for their Super Eights matches.

This schedule will specify the program, dates and venues of the matches that they will be expected to play if they progress to this stage of the tournament. Should one of the lower-ranked teams succeed in knocking out one of the higher ranked teams, it will simply take over the schedule that will be in place for the team it has eliminated.

"The West Indies offers unique logistical challenges for a tournament of this nature," said Mr Speed.

"By fixturing the Super Eights stage prior to the tournament the travel, accommodation, ticketing, facilities and other organisational issues are minimized for the host countries, the teams, the supporters and all the other people who will be in the West Indies for this event."

At this stage it has still to be decided which islands will host games during the course of the tournament with the West Indies Cricket Board as host nation overseeing the selection process to determine where the games will be staged.

ICC media contact:

Brendan McClements
General Manager - Corporate Affairs
Mob: +44 (0) 7786 194 974