U19 World Cup moved to New Zealand

New Zealand's Tim Southee impressed in the last U/19 World Cup, hosted by Malaysia

The International Cricket Council has announced New Zealand is set to replace Kenya as host of the 2010 ICC Under-19 World Cup.

The decision was reached on the second day of the current ICC board meeting in London, subject to the agreement of satisfactory terms.

It was concluded that with only eight months to go until the start of the event, it was unrealistic to expect Kenya to be ready given the large amount of work still needing to be done.

ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said: “We have been working with Kenya to monitor their progress towards staging the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup for some time, with visits to the locations earmarked for matches and regular reports to the ICC board.

“Regrettably, the conclusion reached was that the amount of work still to be done to get many of the venues ready was such that retaining Kenya as a host represented too great a risk to the successful staging of the event.

“It is a difficult conclusion to have reached and a regrettable one from the perspectives of both the ICC and Cricket Kenya, but with just eight months to go before the scheduled start, we could not proceed on the basis of hoping that everything would be ready next February.

“The ICC U19 Cricket World Cup is the highest profile event in the ICC’s development calendar. Coverage of the matches is broadcast all around the world and it is a recognised stepping stone for players to graduate to full international level.

“By way of examples, since the latest edition of the tournament, in Malaysia in February/March last year, India’s Virat Kohli, Wayne Parnell of South Africa and New Zealand’s Tim Southee have all gone on to play for their countries.

“We hope Kenya will be able to stage ICC events in the future and we are grateful to New Zealand Cricket for its offer to stage the tournament. It did so successfully in 2002 and we look forward to it doing so again in 2010.”