The International Cricket Council yesterday announced the schedule for the 2011 Cricket World Cup to be co-hosted by Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh.

Of the 12 games that Sri Lanka are to host, new venues Hambantota and Pallekelle will host two and three games respectively while R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo will host as many as seven games including one quarter-final and a semi-final.

Sri Lanka, the finalists of the 2007 edition of the tournament are pooled in Group ‘A’ alongside defending champions Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Canada and Kenya. In Group ‘B’ are India, South Africa, England, West Indies, Bangladesh, Ireland and Netherlands.

The 1996 World Champions will begin their campaign against Canada on the 20th of February 2011 in Hambantota. They will play Pakistan on the 26th of February at R. Premadasa Stadium.

Hambantota will also host the game between Pakistan and Kenya. Pallekelle, meanwhile will host Sri Lanka’s game against Zimbabwe on the 10th of March.

The Sri Lankans will play only one of their first round games away from home – the match against New Zealand, which Mumbai will host on the 18th of March. Three more first round games, against Australia, Pakistan and Kenya will be played at R. Premadasa Stadium with the thriller against the Aussies scheduled for the 5th of March.

The 2011 edition of the tournament will be similar to the competition that took place in the sub-continent in 1996 where straight after the first round, teams played quarter-finals. Subsequent tournaments in 1999, 2003 and 2007 contained Super Six or Super Eight rounds which meant that the tournament dragged on.

The 2011 tournament will last exactly for six weeks where 49 matches will be worked off. The tournament will get underway on the 19th of February with India taking on co-hosts Bangladesh in Dhaka. Sri Lanka will play Canada the very next day.The final will be played in Mumbai on the 2nd of April.

While Sri Lanka will host 12 games, India has got a large share of the games hosting 29 matches with Bangladesh staging eight games. The three countries will utilize 13 venues during the high profile event.

The amount of teams participating in 2011 has been reduced to 14 from the 16 teams that took part in 2007 in the West Indies.