MUMBAI: Pakistan will play its six league matches of the World
Cup 2011 in Sri Lanka.

India will clash with Bangladesh in the
opening match of the 2011 World Cup in Dhaka on February 19, the
International Cricket Council (ICC) said on Monday.

The
first match takes place two days after the opening ceremony of the
14-nation showpiece at the same venue in Dhaka on February 17,
according to the schedule released by the ICC here.

The
final of the 43-day tournament, being co-hosted by India, Sri Lanka and
Bangladesh, will take place at the renovated Wankhede stadium in
India’s financial capital of Mumbai on April 2.

The teams
have been divided into two groups of seven each for the preliminary
league, with the top four from each group advancing to the
quarter-finals.

Defending champions Australia head group A
which includes Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and two
qualifiers, Canada and Kenya.

The other group comprises India, South Africa, England, West Indies, Bangladesh and qualifiers Ireland, Netherlands.

India
will host 29 matches at eight venues, Sri Lanka 12 at three venues and
Bangladesh eight at two places, after Pakistan were removed as co-hosts
by the ICC due to security fears in the volatile nation.

Pakistan,
who were wary of playing in India due to political tensions between the
two nations, will play its six league matches in Sri Lanka.

Sri
Lanka will host five of its matches at two new venues in southern
Hambantota and Pallekele, near the hill town of Kandy, where cricket
stadiums are under construction.

The remaining seven games in the island nation will be held at the Premadasa stadium in Colombo.

India
has picked eight regular Test centres — Mumbai, Mohali, Ahmedabad,
Nagpur, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai, New Delhi — for its matches.

The
Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka will host six matches and the opening
ceremony, while two games will be played in the port city of Chittagong.

The
2011 event is a week shorter than the one held in the Caribbean in 2007
and will have 49 matches, two less than the previous tournament.