2011 World Cup games in 8 cities, Mumbai gets final

Mumbai will stage the final of the 2011 one-day World Cup, which is being jointly hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Mumbai is set to become only the second Indian city, after Kolkata, to host a cricket World Cup final.

HT Image

The centre traditionally known as the cradle of Indian cricket, where the Board of Control for Cricket in India is headquartered, will host the final of the 2011 tournament, apart from two other matches, it was decided on Wednesday.

This will be the first World Cup knockout match to be played in the city in 24 years, after the 1987 semifinal which India lost to eventual runner up England.

The other Indian cities to get big matches are Mohali (semifinal) and Ahmedabad (quarterfinal) in the tournament that will be jointly hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Pakistan, who were also initially named as joint hosts, were stripped of their games for security reasons.

Eden Gardens, which was the venue for heartbreak for India in 1996, when they were knocked out of the tournament by eventual winners Sri Lanka in a semifinal marred by crowd misbehaviour, will host four matches, including an India game.

In the recent past the Cricket Association of Bengal has alleged that the Indian board was not allotting Kolkata its fair share of matches as a result of the feud between Jagmohan Dalmiya, CAB president, and the current BCCI administration.