Mahinda Rajapaksa Stadium
Only 23 days left for the Cricket World Cup to begin, the first ODI will take place between India and Bangladesh on the 19th of February in Mirpur, starting with group B matches.
Complete ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 Schedule
There will be 14 warm up matches to be played by the competing countries in various locations within India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
As admitted by the ICC (International Cricket Council), the venues where the cricket world cup is to take place are not up to scratch in Sri Lanka. The stadiums require some more work before the warm up matches begin.
The SLC (Sri Lanka Cricket) board has said that due to the delays in the world cup venues they have changed the venues for the series against West Indies.
There have been little snippets from here and there of people voicing their concerns about what state the pitch will be ultimately. A Sri Lankan daily reported that many Sri Lankan players including Mahela Jayawardene are very concerned about what the condition of the pitch will be in the R Premadasa International Cricket Stadium.
The chairman of the SLC who is DS de Silva has rubbished these claims saying that all the three venues will be handed over to the ICC on the 28th of January 2011 (Friday).
The Sri Lankan World Cup venues are; the first being R Premadasa Stadium (Colombo) where 5 group matches, 1 quarter-final, 1 semi-final will take place.
The second being Pallekele Stadium (Kandy) where 3 group matches will take place and third Mahinda Rajapaksa Stadium (Hambantota) where 2 group matches will take place.
Whether or not the reports are correct or not, Sri Lanka will want to make sure that all goes smoothly as the most important month of cricket will be in and around them and with that they will have to ensure that everything is of top notch quality and all the pitches are in the best condition.
This world cup will help the SLC gain recognition and reputation as well as bring more tourism to Sri Lanka.
Tags: Bangladesh, Cricket, Cricket World Cup, ICC, India, International Cricket Council, SLC, Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Cricket
