ICC receives submissions from 15 countries for events through to 2015

ICC Administration and Commercial Officer Fiona Starr receives the Australia/New Zealand World Cup bid from Cricket Australia's Andrew Wiles © ICC

The International Cricket Council (ICC) today announced that it had received submissions from 15 member boards for its package of events from 2007 to 2015.

The submissions, which had to be received by 28 February, include five members seeking to host ICC Champions Trophies and seven members targeting a potential Twenty20 event.

A representative from Australia and New Zealand's joint bid for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 hand-delivered their submission document to the ICC office in Dubai on Monday 27 February. Australia and New Zealand's bid covers both the 2011 and 2015 events while England have submitted to host the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015.

ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed said that this was an unprecedented response from the cricket world.

"This is the first time that we have run such a comprehensive submissions process and we have been delighted by the positive response from so many of our members," said Mr Speed.

"We have been impressed by the quality of many of the bids and they will present the ICC Board with a good range of options when it meets to review the scheduling and hosting of these events in March."

Submissions for the ICC Champions Trophies have been sent by Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates and West Indies.

England, Malaysia, Scotland, South Africa, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates and West Indies have all followed up their expressions of interest by submitting to host a potential Twenty20 World Championship.

Interest in the Women's World Cup is also high with India, Malaysia and United Arab Emirates all bidding for the event.

The following countries have also submitted to host Division One of the ICC's World Cricket League or the ICC World Cup Qualifier (formerly ICC Trophy): Ireland, Malaysia, Namibia and The Netherlands.

Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have requested an extension to the deadline to 20 March for the submission of their joint bid to host the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. Bangladesh has also requested an extension with regards to its bid for the ICC Champions Trophy pending the receipt of certain government documents. Submissions from several Associate Member countries that had earlier sent `letters of intent' had not been received by 28 February. The issue of late applications will be considered by the ICC Executive Board when it meets in Dubai.

The submissions are now being reviewed ahead of the ICC Board meeting on 20 and 21 March.

The Board will consider recommendations made in February by the ICC Chief Executives' Committee regarding an annual events schedule that would include a Twenty20 World Championship and a shorter-format ICC Champions Trophy. Once the Board has determined a schedule of events it is also expected to make `in principle' decisions on the hosting of many of these events.

Final approval on the hosting of the major events will be given by ICC Annual Conference at the start of July.