Dubai: Pakistan has lodged a protest with cricket's governing body over the shifting of World Cup 2011 matches due to be staged in the country to other nations, an official said on Wednesday.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) last week stripped Pakistan of 14 matches it was scheduled to host, citing the "uncertain security situation" in the troubled country.

The fixtures will go ahead in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Pakistan team manager Yawar Saeed said a delegate of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) lodged the protest on the sidelines of ICC meeting here on Tuesday.

"We have registered our protest during the ICC meeting and our stance was that all four co-hosts of the World Cup were not treated equally by the ICC and they should have waited for six months before taking this decision," Saeed said.

The ICC had cast serious doubts over Pakistan's chances of hosting World Cup matches after last month's terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team, which left seven players and their asistant coach injured and eight policemen dead. Sri Lanka were forced to abandon the tour mid-way through the second Test.

Even before the Lahore attacks, several national sides who refused to tour the country, where the army has been fighting an increasingly trenchant insurgency by Taliban militants and Al-Qaeda.

In February this year the ICC was forced to shift the eight-nation Champions trophy from Pakistan after several teams refused to tour. The event will now be held in South Africa in September and October.

Australia, who have not been to Pakistan since 1998, refused to tour over security fears and forced their host to play a five one-day and one Twenty20 match series in the neutral venues of Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

But Saeed raised questions about the security situation in its neighbouring countries.

"India shifted their cricket league to South Africa over security fears," he said of the Indian Premier League's move which followed New Delhi's refusal to provide security due to the event overlapping with the general elections.

"We could not tour Bangladesh because there were security fears in March," said Saeed, referring to a postponement over February's mutiny at a military camp there that left 56 officers dead.

"The situation in Sri Lanka was not good either, so from the PCB chairman Ijaz Butt (to) our director general Javed Miandad, everyone has said that ICC must reconsider the decision," said Saeed.