Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh and Kumar Sangakkara at the ICC function in Mumbai on Monday

Mumbai: Calcuttans will get to see World Cup action again, on February 27, 2011, when India take on England in their Group B encounter.

The last World Cup match at Eden Gardens, the semi-finals in 1996, was cut short because of crowd violence. This time, the fans will get a taste of the action in a refurbished stadium.

The other three World Cup matches to be hosted by the Eden are: South Africa versus Ireland (Group B, March 15), Ireland versus the Netherlands (Group B, March 18) and Zimbabwe versus Kenya (Group A, March 20).

Except the India-England tie, the three other matches Eden Gardens will be hosting mostly feature the lesser known teams of world cricket. South Africa are the only Test-playing nation to be involved in those fixtures.

Those matches will hardly be of too much interest to the otherwise cricket crazy public of Calcutta.

India will launch their campaign against Bangladesh in the opening match of the 10th edition of cricket’s flagship event at the Mirpur stadium in Dhaka on February 19.

The inauguration ceremony is to be held at the same venue two days earlier.

Sri Lanka is the other co-host of the quadrennial event. Pakistan, too, was to hold matches as the fourth co-host before the International Cricket Council decided against holding matches in the country due to security concerns.

Pakistan, who are in Group A, are set to play all their group league games in Sri Lanka, which has added two new centres in Hambantonta, a beach-side venue, and Pallekel, near Kandy, to its list of international venues.

The quarter finals will be held in Dhaka (March 23 and 25), Colombo (March 24) and Ahmedabad (March 26), while the semis will be held in Colombo (March 29) and Mohali (March 30). The final will be played in Mumbai on April 2.

In all, 49 matches, including 42 in the group stage, will be played over a span of 43 days. The format — 14 teams split into two groups with the top four from each advancing to the quarter finals — witnesses a return to the league-cum-knockout format, instead of the Super Six or Super Eight of the previous three editions.

The Super Eight concept came under scrutiny after India crashed out of the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean in the first round, with a shocking loss to Bangladesh.

“This time there will be more opportunities to get through to the quarter finals. Perhaps one bad game won’t lose you the tournament,” ICC chief executive officer Haroon Lorgat said at the function to announce the schedule.

Lorgat refused to admit that the event could have been shortened further by not including the associate member countries — Ireland, Canada, Holland and Kenya — who came through a qualifying tournament.

“We have to find a balance between the right length (of the event) and giving opportunities to associate countries. I think we have got a decent balance and we will have an attractive tournament,” he said.

Sharad Pawar, ICC vice-president and chairman of the 2011 Cup Organising Committee, said that Rs 200 crore — including Rs 50 crore from the BCCI’s funds — has been allotted for the rebuilding of the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai, where the final is to be held.