Hosts could enjoy home advantage in knockout games

The hosts of the 2011 World Cup will enjoy home advantage for the quarter-finals and semi-finals if a proposal to this effect is approved by the ICC board. It means India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will play at home if they make the knockout stage but, if two of them play each other, the higher-ranked side from the group stage will host the match.

The chief executives' committee (CEC), meeting in Dubai on Tuesday, supported a request from the World Cup's central organising committee and has passed it on to the ICC board, which will take it up when it holds the first of its four meetings in February next year.

At the announcement of the tournament's match schedule last month, the venues for the knockout phase, and not the match-ups, were specified. While two of the quarter-finals will be played in Mirpur, Ahmedabad and Colombo will host the other two. Colombo will also be hosting a semi-final along with Mohali.

As the immediate permutations stand, either India or Bangladesh, who have been placed in Group B, are likely to meet Sri Lanka, from Group A, in the final eight. The semi-finals may also throw up a likely scenario where all three are involved, if paired against non-hosts in the quarter-finals.

Sharad Pawar, the ICC vice-president, is the chairman of the 2011 World Cup's organising committee, while Ratnakar Shetty, the BCCI's chief administrative officer, is the tournament director. The 43-day event comprises 49 games spread over three countries and 13 venues and will be a week shorter than the 2007 edition in the West Indies.

The ten Full Member countries and four Associates have been divided into two groups of seven each, with the top four from each group qualifying for the quarter-finals. Group A includes Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Canada and Kenya. Group B comprises India, South Africa, England, West Indies, Bangladesh, Ireland and the Netherlands.

The CEC also approved a recommendation from the women's committee that the top four sides from the Women's World Twenty20, to be held in West Indies next year, will earn direct qualification for the following edition in Sri Lanka, while the four remaining teams will have to go through a qualification process.