Pakistan withdraws all cases against ICC

Karachi:

Pakistan Cricket Board has withdrawn all its legal proceedings against International Cricket Council and 2011 World Cup central organising committee for shifting 14 matches of the mega event out of the country, as part of its deal with the ICC.

The legal advisor of the PCB, Tafazzul Rizvi said on Saturday that all cases that the board had launched against the ICC and the World Cup committee were withdrawn after the dispute over the 2011 event in the sub-continent was resolved.

PCB had sent a legal notice to the ICC threatening to take them to court for shifting 14 matches of the World Cup from Pakistan due to security reasons and at the same time had also filed a case in a civil court in Lahore against the shifting of the World Cup secretariat from Lahore to Mumbai.

"Since there is no dispute now with the ICC we immediately took measures to drop our legal proceedings including those to be initiated by our lawyers in the United Kingdom," Rizvi said.

He said the notification to this effect has been sent to the ICC and World Cup organisers.

As part of the deal, Pakistan will be paid USD 10.5 million as hosting fees of the 14 matches and another USD 7 to 8 million as ancillary revenues which it would have earned from gate money, advertising, sale of hospitality boxes if the matches had been held in Pakistan.

The ICC and World Cup host countries - India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh - have agreed to give the ancillary revenues to Pakistan under an agreement that took place in Dubai.

The PCB also received USD 750,000 as hosting fees from the ICC for the Champions Trophy that was moved from Pakistan to South Africa earlier this year due to security issues.