Big hopes for Twenty20 World Cup

The Twenty20 World Cup will be as successful as the 50 over World Cup, according to Haroon Lorgat, the International Cricket Council (ICC) Chief Executive, as the world cricket body gets ready to plan the next biggest event next year in Sri Lanka. "The Twenty20 World Cup will be a lot easier because the infrastructure has already been built there during the World Cup. ‘We have scheduled the first meeting for the Twenty20 World Cup later this month in Sri Lanka. We are starting to plan and prepare well and early as we do not leave things till the end," said Lorgat in an exclusive interview with Gulf News at the ICC Global Cricket Academy during the final of the Cricket for Care Inter Academy tournament. The next Twenty20 World Cup will be the first to be held in an Asian country with the last three being held in South Africa, England and West Indies. Talking about the post 2011 World Cup and the impact it had on the game, Lorgat said: "Cricket is in a very strong position. Before the World Cup, if we go back a little, Test cricket was under threat." Under threat "Before the World Cup people were also suggesting that 50 over cricket was under threat and we always contended that it was more about the context, scheduling and about getting competitive teams playing against each other and it was not the format that was the issue." "The last World Cup proved that the 50 over format is alive and well. In fact, I recall saying before the World Cup that let us not jump the gun and let us wait for the World Cup and thankfully players stepped up to the plate. There is no doubt they played brilliant cricket and the facilities were also good. All of that presented a very good World Cup." When asked whether the IPL which was held immediately after the World Cup resulted in too much cricket for the players, Lorgat said: "We need to keep an eye on the volume of cricket. Players have to look after their own careers as well. The boards manage those players directly and I think it is a combination for all of us to make sure we do not lose sight of the volume of cricket." Lorgat who was impressed with the enthusiasm and passion of the Under-15 boys said that ICC is yet to plan a world tournament below the age of 19. "We haven't planned anything below the Under-19 level because each member country has got enormous investment in development programmes for young kids and we haven't focused on getting anything organised below Under-19."