India not to host tri-series before World Cup

India will not host a tri-series featuring West Indies and Sri Lanka in 2007 as originally planned, and will instead play separate bilateral series against both teams. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced that India would play a maximum of eight to ten one-dayers in January as a build-up to the World Cup.

The new plans were discussed when Zorol Barthley, chief cricket operations officer of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), met with BCCI officials during his visit to Mumbai. Niranjan Shah, the BCCI secretary, confirmed the new proposal and reasoned that the change in plan was to ensure that India gained as much match practice as possible before the World Cup began in March.

"It is more a build-up, so the more matches we play the better it will be before the World Cup", Shah told The Times of India. "So we are pressing for a bilateral series."

India's tour of South Africa concludes in early January, while Sri Lanka return from New Zealand in the second week of January. West Indies do not have any international commitments scheduled for that period, so it is likely that the bilateral contests will be held in mid-January.