Cricket: World Cup overlooks America

The United States will not host a 2007 World Cup match after all following Monday's announcement of the eight successful venues.

Despite the International Cricket Council touting America as one of the bases for the event - on numerous occasions - Florida missed out as the West Indies Cricket Board revealed the eight successful bids for a tournament which will comprise a staggering 51 matches in as many days.

While expanding the sport beyond its current stronghold of Commonwealth countries to established sporting nations like the USA remains high on the ICC agenda, potential problems such as securing visas for players arriving at short notice at a time when America's security is under a new stricter entrance policy could have arisen.

Nevertheless, both the ICC and WICB insisted at Monday's press conference in St John's Wood, London, that Florida had not met the selection criteria.

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