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JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Wednesday announced the groups for the 2011 Cricket World Cup to be played in Asia.

The West Indies, who won the World Cup in 1975 and 1979, have been listed in Group B alongside India, South Africa, England, Bangladesh, Ireland and Netherlands. Defending World Cup champions Australia are in Group A with Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Canada and Kenya.

In a statement following its board meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, the ICC outlined that  India will host 29 of the tournament’s  49 matches, including a semi-final and the final. Sri Lanka will stage the other semi-final. According to the provisional schedule, Bangladesh is due to stage the opening ceremony on Feb. 18 and the opening game the next day, as well as two quarter-finals.

India will stage matches in eight venues, Sri Lanka has 12 matches at three venues and Bangladesh eight at two.

Also at the meeting, the ICC held a discussion on the promotion of cricket. It was agreed to extend the scope of the project from promotion to include product research and analysis concerning Tests, One-Day Internationals and T20 Internationals. A competitive analysis of other sports and entertainment products will be carried out by a working group and there will be further research carried out into various proposals for product development and variation of Test cricket, such as day/night Test matches.

This working group will be chaired by ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat and will include a representative from each Full Member as well as the ICC General Manager – Commercial, Campbell Jamieson and ICC General Manager – Cricket, David Richardson.