The International Cricket Council (ICC) will finalize a shortened 2011 one-day World Cup format and a successor to chief executive Malcolm Speed at a two-day board meeting starting on Monday in Dubai. The top decision-makers of the governing body will also discuss the crisis in Zimbabwe cricket and consider an independent audit that has been undertaken into the game's board there, an ICC release said on Saturday. The ICC chief executives recommended last month pruning the World Cup to 38 days and 14 teams, two fewer than 2007 in West Indies which was heavily criticized as too long and unwieldy. The 2011 World Cup will be jointly staged by India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Australian Speed steps down as CEO after the annual meeting in June and July. Former Indian board chief Inderjit Bindra, South Africa's former chief selector Haroon Lorgat and Imtiaz Patel, a former director of the board, are among those in the reckoning. A four-member sub-committee that includes ICC President Ray Mali and England's David Morgan, who will succeed him this year, will make their recommendations on the candidate, the release said. The meeting will also discuss the concerns of national boards facing erosion in the ranks of their national teams due to the lucrative Twenty20 Indian Premier League (IPL). The inaugural 44-day, eight-team edition starts on April 18. An ICC spokesman said that no board had so far requested the governing body to provide a free slot in the international calendar to accommodate the annual league. The West Indies board chief is among those who are worried. “We're deeply concerned about the future impact of leagues like the IPL on our cricket particularly when their seasons are in direct competition with our tours or our domestic season,” Julian Hunte said in a statement on the board's website. “We and New Zealand will be the big losers,” Hunte said. “Already it is clear that three of our players will have to choose between representing teams in the IPL or representing their region.” The ICC board will also decide whether to approve a trial in a Test series later this year of more technology to aid umpires' decisions. __
