Stock-market impact of the International Cricket Council's decision to reallocate 2011 World Cup matches

This paper analyses stock-market reactions in Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh after Pakistan was stripped of hosting duties for the 2011 Cricket World Cup matches. It advances the literature by providing an analysis of a unique situation where a country was stripped of the right to host matches of a major sporting event. Pakistan's matches were redistributed among fellow host countries India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. Analysing both regular and abnormal returns, I find an overall positive stock-market reaction in all these countries, albeit due to different reasons. There are negative reputational effects for Pakistan and positive reputational effects for India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Further, the returns are negatively correlated with the number of matches awarded. The results suggest positive reputation effects associated with hosting the 2011 Cricket World Cup matches, but a negative marginal impact of each additional match hosted.