MOHALI, India (AP):

MINUTES AFTER speaking about maintaining the primacy of Test cricket, International Cricket Council (ICC) chief executive Haroon Lorgat announced yesterday that a Twenty20 World Cup would be staged in the West Indies in 2010.

The move to host the 20/20 showpiece in the Caribbean follows last years staging of one-day crickets World Cup in the region an event roundly criticised by the international media for lacking a West Indian flavour.

The Cricket World Cup was also dogged by small attendances particularly after key drawcards India and Pakistan were shockingly knocked out in the first round.

Boards choice

There was a choice that the board had between holding a Champions Trophy (a one-day tournament) or Twenty20 (in 2010) and it was decided it would make more sense, and get a better spread of events, for that to be a Twenty20, Lorgat said.

After the 2009 Champions Trophy, the tournament will not be played again until at least 2012 because the World Cup, the ICCs marquee limited-overs tournament, is being staged in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in 2011.

Some concerns

Concerns have grown over the future of Test cricket and the 50-over one-day format that has been in vogue since the 1970s with the emergence of Twenty20, which is quickly gaining in popularity, particularly in India.

Twenty20 can be condensed to several hours instead of a day, with each team batting a maximum20 overs.

Lorgat, who attended a full ICC board meeting in Dubai this week, said the worlds cricket boards respect the primacy of Test cricket and the ICC was considering its position on a number of issues involving the abbreviated format.

Rebel league

The rebel Indian Cricket League, an unsanctioned Twenty20 competition, met with the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the owner of the sanctioned Indian Premier League, this week but the talks failed. The ICC will wait for an official report from the BCCI before considering an application from the ICL for official status.

Players in the ICL, which is currently being held in India, are banned from representing their home domestic and international teams.

We are going through a process and part of that process is to wait for a report from the BCCI and we will consider that report and deal with that application, Lorgat said.

Discussions

The ICC is also involved in ongoing discussions over Sri Lanka's scheduled tour of England next May after a multimillion-dollar proposal from the BCCI for Sri Lanka's players to appear in the IPL at that time.

What we are seeing is the challenge between the way players want to be in terms of their earnings, the potential to earn the most while they have a window in their own careers, Lorgat said.

Its clear what the position of the Sri Lanka cricket board is, they want to see their team tour England. Equally the England cricket board is keen to see it go ahead.