London - The chief executive of the International Cricket Council, Malcolm Speed, says two strong bids from Asia and Australasia to host the 2011 Cricket World Cup will give the sport's governing body much to discuss at a meeting on Sunday.

Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have submitted a late joint bid to challenge the application made jointly byAustralia and New Zealand.

Speed says the bids, and the hosting of the 2015 World Cup, will be discussed by the ICC board in Dubai, though a decision may not be made immediately.

"We put in place some very strict compliance guidelines so a lot of work has gone into both of these submissions.

"This leaves us in a very positive position where we have two strong options for the 2011 ICC CWC and there will doubtless be extensive discussion as to which submission will be successful.

"It may be that neither submission has sufficient support atthe end of the meeting in which case the board will have to reconvene at a later date."

The bidders need the support of at least seven of the 10 full members, or Test-playing nations, to win.

Australia and New Zealand co-hosted the 1992 World Cup and were in line to stage the 2011 event after Asia (1996), England (1999), South Africa (2003) and the West Indies (2007) were each awarded the tournament.
Reuters