One of the greatest sporting spectacles in the world, the Cricket World Cup, has found its way to use once again, this time taking place on the sub-continent of India. The World Cup is hosted over a period of 6-7 weeks, the finals being held on the 2 April at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, India.

The Teams

There are 14 participating nations in this event, split into 2 groups as follows:

Group A:

Australia

New Zealand

Pakistan

Sri Lanka

Canada

Kenya

Zimbabwe

Group B:

India

England

South Africa

West Indies

Bangladesh

Netherlands

Ireland

How it works

Each team will play each other once in the group stages, and the top 4 teams of each group will continue forward to the quarter-finals. The top 8 will face each other, and the 4 winners of the quarter-finals advance to the semi-finals. The winners of the semi-finals will advance to the finals, where the cup will be decided.

Quarter Finals

23 March 2011

Group A1 v Group B4

Sher-e-Bangla Cricket Stadium, Dhaka

24 March 2011

Group A2 v Group B3

Sardar Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad

25 March 2011

Group A3 v Group B2

Sher-e-Bangla Cricket Stadium, Dhaka

26 March 2011

Group A4 v Group B1

R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo

Semi-Finals

29 March 2011

Winner of 23 March 2011 v Winner of 25 March 2011

R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo

30 March 2011

Winner of 24 March 2011 v Winner of 26 March 2011

Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali

Finals

2 April 2011

Winner of 29 March 2011 v Winner of 30 March 2011

India raped Australia and New Zealand in the warm up games, I don't see why we don't rape the whole tourney. I'm Indian too and I feel we have a great squad.

South Africa, Sri Lanka and Australia are possibily the only ones who will show resistance.

btw it's co-hosted by Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Correct, but when I refer to the sub-continent I refer to the countries involved such as Bangladesh / Sri Lanka. :)

Well, since I'm a born and bred South African I'm totally behind them. The recent series we had against India was a draw but, of course, there were some fairly questionable umpire decisions and stupid mistakes on our part, we should've walked both of them.

India and Sri Lanka have a huge advantage however, because their spinners work really well on their home turf, aswell as their batmans abilities to get their eye in quickly.