DRS to make debut at 2011 Cricket World Cup

The International Cricket Council has decided to introduce the highly debated Decision Review System (DRS) from the quarter-final stage of the World Cup, scheduled to be held in the Indian sub-continent in from Feb-April 2011.

"The DRS will be used in the four quarter-finals, two semi-finals and the final, a total of seven matches, in the ICC Cricket World Cup," an ICC spokesperson said in Mumbai on Wednesday.

He added that the DRS would be used only in the later stages of the tournament, to be jointly hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh from February 19-April 2, because of paucity of enough proper equipment for it to be used during the league phase too.

The four quarter-finals are scheduled for March 23 (Dhaka), March 24 (Colombo), March 25 (Dhaka) and March 26 (Ahmedabad).

The two semi-finals are scheduled be held on March 29 (Colombo) and March 30 (Mohali), while Mumbai will host the final on April 2.

Meanwhile, ICC's venue inspection squad comprising seven groups, visited Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium, which is to host the grand finale.

"The seven groups are dealing with cricket operations, commerce, grounds, legal, security, broadcast and media. They had an inspection of the stadium and whatever they saw today will be shared with the Tournament Director (Prof Ratnakar Shetty)," he said.

The renovation work in the stadium that commenced more than two years ago is still to be completed but officials of Mumbai Cricket Association, which owns the venue, are confident everything would be completed, barring some finishing touches, by the end of this year.

"Everything will be ready by December 31 and by January 15, 2011 the final finishing touches will also be completed," said an MCA source.

As per ICC's requirements, the organisers are yet to play a few matches on the newly laid pitch and the renovated outfield to test their readiness for hosting World Cup matches.

A Ranji Trophy league match between Mumbai and Assam was earlier planned to be held from November 24, but the venue was not ready and the match was shifted to MCA's Bandra-Kurla Complex ground.

Now there are plans to host some matches in January.

The visit to the Wankhede Stadium by the ICC team follows its tour of Sri Lanka between November 30 and December 5 and its inspection of the Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, another venue to host World Cup ties, two days ago.

The ICC inspection squad has already visited five other venues in India which are hosting WC matches -- Nagpur, Mohali, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Delhi -- last month and is set to visit Kolkata's Eden Gardens on Thursday, the spokesperson said.

"We would be visiting Dhaka and Chittagong in Bangladesh from December 10-14," he added.