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

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