ICC board meet to decide shortened Cup format and CEO

By N.Ananthanarayanan

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The International Cricket Council (ICC) will finalise a shortened 2011 one-day World Cup format and a successor to chief executive Malcolm Speed at a two-day board meeting starting on Monday in Dubai.

The top decision-makers of the governing body will also discuss the crisis in Zimbabwe cricket and consider an independent audit that has been undertaken into the game's board there, an ICC release said on Saturday.

The ICC chief executives recommended last month pruning the World Cup to 38 days and 14 teams, two fewer than 2007 in West Indies which was heavily criticised as too long and unwieldy.

The 2011 World Cup will be jointly staged by India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Australian Speed steps down as CEO after the annual meeting in June and July. Former Indian board chief Inderjit Bindra, South Africa's former chief selector Haroon Lorgat and Imtiaz Patel, a former director of the board, are among those in the reckoning.

A four-member sub-committee that includes ICC President Ray Mali and England's David Morgan, who will succeed him this year, will make their recommendations on the candidate, the release said.

The meeting will also discuss the concerns of national boards who are facing erosion in the ranks of their national teams due to the lucrative Twenty20 Indian Premier League (IPL). The inaugural 44-day, eight-team edition starts on April 18.

An ICC spokesman said that no board had so far requested the governing body to provide a free slot in the international calendar to accommodate the annual league.