KINGSTON, Jamaica: The 2011 Cricket World Cup (CWC) in the sub-continent, in spite of criticism of the present one in the Caribbean being unduly lengthy, wouldn’t be much shorter, the International Cricket Council (ICC) chief Malcolm Speed said.

“I will be surprised if we can come up with a solution that will significantly shorten (next World Cup). This is shorter than South Africa (2003 edition of the World Cup). World Cup is a major one-day event for cricket in four years. It needs to be run across a lengthy time so that the top teams can qualify for knock-out stages at the end of it,” Speed explained.

Speed then went about backing his assertion with some facts.

“There has been criticism for length of the tournament. The team that gets to the final plays 11 matches in 47 days, its one match every four and a quarter day,” he explained.

“India this year will go to England and play 22 days of cricket in 57 days. They will play every three days, one day of cricket. That is twice as many days of cricket as compared to the World Cup. And they are going to be there 10 days longer,” he continued.

“Now if you are playing one day for very four days that is pretty reasonable. We also need rain days. We need rain days to maximise the chances of matches being determined on their merit,” he added.

ICC chief countered argument that the World Cup was beginning to have more and more smaller nations participating.

“In South Africa we had 14 teams and four associate nations. We had two groups of seven. So Namibia and Holland played six matches,” he reminded.

“Here we tried to guarantee associate nations only three matches. Then we moved to the Super Eight round. Why shouldn’t World Cup be a long event? It is good for cricket that the World Cup goes on for a long period of time and sustains interest all around the world,” he expressed.

“I am disappointed it is seen as a negative. It is often seen as a negative in countries that have been eliminated. Your country loses interest, so you say this is going on and on and on,” he added.