PTI

Karachi, Jul 9: India will host the 2011 World Cup final while the two semifinals of the mega event will be held in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a top Pakistan Cricket Board official said today.

"India have been allocated the 2011 World Cup final while the two semifinals will be held in Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The opening ceremony will be held in Bangladesh," PCB Director, Board Operations, Abbas Zaidi told PTI from Lahore.

Zaidi said the decision on the host countries of the knockout matches was unanimously made by the newly formed India-Pakistan-Sri Lanka-Bangladesh (IPSB) committee in London yesterday.

"All the Asian countries have tremendous understanding between them and this was a consensus decision," he said.

"If IPSB had stuck to previous format, then I am afraid Bangladesh and Sri Lanka might not have got anything. But every Asian country knows and values the importance of its partner," Zaidi said.

India hosted the 1987 World Cup final and one of the two semifinals when Pakistan and India first jointly hosted the event. In 1996, the final was staged in Pakistan while the two semifinals were played in India.

"Initially, it has only been decided which countries would host the knockout matches. Now which cities will get these showpiece games, it will be decided later on. The objective of IPSB is to make the 2011 World Cup the most successful ever and it will leave no stone unturn in achieving this goal," Zaidi said.