DUBAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has resolved its dispute with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) after the country was removed as joint host of the 2011 World Cup over security concerns.
The breakthrough came at a meeting between ICC President David Morgan and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Ijaz Butt at the ICC office in Dubai, the governing body revealed in a statement made available to AFP.
In an agreement with the ICC’s commercial arm, the PCB will retain its host fees and also receive an additional $10 million as ‘reasonable compensation’ for loss of hosting rights, which it would have pocketed had it hosted the matches on Pakistani soil.
Earlier this month, a PCB official indicated Pakistan had decided to end its legal battle against cricket’s governing body over being stripped four months ago of its share of World Cup 2011 matches owing to security fears.
The ICC relocated Pakistan’s share of 14 matches because of security fears after attacks in its eastern city of Lahore on the Sri Lankan team on March 3.
The attacks injured seven players and their assistant coach and killed eight people.
The Central Organizing Committee of the World Cup 2011 last month awarded eight of Pakistan’s matches to India, four to Sri Lanka and two to Bangladesh.
Besides World Cup matches, the Champions trophy 2008 was also moved out to South Africa after several teams refused to tour Pakistan over security fears.
On Thursday, it was further agreed the PCB would be free of its liabilities and obligations associated with hosting matches during the tournament, including the location of the tournament secretariat, which had originally been set for Lahore.
