London, April 27: London's Olympic Stadium will not stage any matches at next year's 2019 Cricket World Cup despite the arena boasting twice the capacity of Lord's, the sport's iconic home which will host the final.
The International Cricket Council released the full fixture schedule for its showpiece men's one-day international tournament, which will take place in England and Wales, on Thursday.
There had been speculation the London Stadium, which has a capacity of some 60,000 -- more than double that of Lord's and nearly three times that of The Oval, London's other established international cricket ground, could be used during the World Cup.
But the ground, now home to Premier League football club West Ham, has been ignored because the cost of converting it for cricket -- a sport it has yet to stage -- was too expensive.
"It was probably more than 18 months ago that we commissioned drop-in portable pitches to be growing and potentially sent to the London Stadium," said tournament managing director Steve Elworthy, speaking at Lord's.
"But after we understood the unique elements of what cricket would require in that stadium we found ourselves at the point where the infrastructure costs were probably going to be way too much. -AFP
