PCB to retain share of World Cup 2011 fees

Islamabad:

The International Cricket Council has agreed to pay the Pakistan Cricket Board a fee of more than $10 million as a World Cup co-host, despite Pakistan being stripped of its scheduled 14 limited-overs matches for security reasons.

Pakistan lost the rights to stage its share of the 2011 World Cup matches in April due to security fears in the wake of an attack on the Sri Lankan team by gunmen in Lahore.

Each World Cup host country is guaranteed a payment of $750,000 for every allocated match, and co-hosts Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka accepted at an ICC meeting in London on Monday that if any of Pakistan's 14 matches were to take place in their countries, they would not be due a fee for hosting them.

"There was a great deal of sympathy within the meeting for Pakistan's position, as the issues its cricket administrators face are completely beyond their control," ICC president David Morgan said in a statement.

"What we need to do is to settle this matter as quickly as possible within the ICC family as we need to press on with our preparations for the ICC Cricket World Cup, which is less than two years away."

After the meeting, which included ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat and representatives of the four World Cup hosts, Morgan said he hoped the issue of relocating Pakistan's share of the matches - including a semifinal - would be finalized "in the coming days."

Another meeting comprising Morgan, ICC vice president Sharad Pawar of India and PCB chairman Ijaz Butt is due to be held in London on Friday.

"We had constructive discussions and I will look to follow them through with Mr. Pawar and Mr. Butt in the coming days so we can identify the best means of coming up with a recommendation on where the matches originally scheduled to take place in Pakistan can be held," Morgan said.

The ICC did not rule out the United Arab Emirates as a potential venue.

"There are already four host nations, there could be a fifth," Morgan said.

The UAE has expressed its willingness to stage Pakistan's share of matches after successfully organizing a five-match limited-overs series between Pakistan and Australia in April-May.

"If asked (by the PCB), we are willing to organize all its international matches including the World Cup," Abu Dhabi Cricket Council's chief executive Dilawar Mani said last month.

Foreign teams have stayed away from Pakistan due to growing security concerns with ICC shifting the Champions Trophy to South Africa while not a single test match was played in Pakistan last year.