An Asian World Cup is certain to attract huge crowds

The joint bid from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh was chosen to host the tournament at a meeting on Sunday.

"We are confident 2011 will represent a new landmark as a cricketing and sporting milestone.

"The cricket World Cup will be as big as the one for football," said spokesman Inderjit Singh Bindra.

The former head of the Indian Board of Control made the presentation which persuaded International Cricket Council officials that the Asian bid was superior to a joint application by Australia and New Zealand, who will now host the 2015 World Cup.

"We only had to stress that cricket is a religion in our part of the world, everything else is secondary.

"Bollywood movies, official functions, even marriages, are arranged depending on the cricket schedule.

"Traffic will come to a stop in the four countries in 2011. There will be more than a billion (TV) viewers in the sub-continent, and another billion in the rest of the world," Bindra added.

Potential venues mentioned in the Asian bid were Mumbai (Bombay), Delhi, Bangalore, Madras (Chennai), Calcutta (Kolkata), Nagpur, Mohali and Ahmedabad in India, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Karachi, Peshawar, Multan and Faisalabad in Pakistan, the Premadasa Stadium and Sinhalese Sports Club in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo.

Sri Lanka won the World Cup when it was last played in Asia

Three grounds in Bangladesh were also included, but this will eventually be reduced to one.

Bangladesh spokesman Mohammad Ali Asghar described the selection of the Asian bid as "fantastic news" and is hoping his country will stage the opening match.

"The matches in our country will definitely keep up Bangladesh's development in world cricket and we congratulate the ICC for giving us this chance," he commented.

His view was echoed by Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

"It is a tremendous honour. "The submissions process has been eye-opening for all of us.

"I don't think we fully appreciated the volume of work that was required to produce a compliant submission and we are grateful to the ICC Board for allowing us extra time to complete this process," said Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Shaharyar Khan.

"All of Sri Lanka will be thrilled with what has happened and with the problems in the country at the moment this is a very positive thing," added Sri Lanka Cricket counterpart Jayantha Dharmadasa.

The organisers of the bid have yet decide which country will host the final.

When India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka jointly staged the tournament in 1996, the final was played in Lahore.