PCB to retain share of World Cup fees: ICC

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

Islamabad/London, June 16 : The International Cricket Council has agreed to pay the Pakistan Cricket Board a fee of more than 10 million dollars 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 dollars 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.

ANI