Pakistan could earn more than 10 million dollars even if they don't host a single match in cricket's World Cup in 2011, the sport's governing body has indicated. The showpiece event is due to be co-hosted by South Asia's four Test nations - India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh - in February-March 2011.
The International Cricket Council took away the 14 World Cup matches from Pakistani soil due to the volatile security situation there, but the country retained its hosting rights. It means Pakistan will still get a hosting fee of 750,000 dollars per match from the ICC - a total of 10.5 million dollars for the 14 games - irrespective of where they are held.
"Pakistan remains a co-host and retains its host fees for the 14 matches originally scheduled to take place there before the decision to remove the country as a host location for the tournament," the ICC said in a statement. It added that the other three host nations have agreed to forego hosting fees for the 14 extra matches allotted to them that were originally due to be held in Pakistan, the ICC said.
"Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka all accepted that if any of those 14 matches were to take place in their countries, then they would not be due any fee for hosting them," the statement said. ICC officials did not rule out the possibility of Pakistan holding its matches in the United Arab Emirates, where it hosted a one-day series against Australia in April-May in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. "There are already four host nations," ICC president David Morgan said after a meeting with officials of the four co-hosts in London on Monday on the sidelines of the World Twenty20.
"There could be a fifth country hosting matches." The Pakistan Cricket Board, which had sent a legal notice to the ICC after the matches were taken away from the country, appears to have emerged a clear winner. If an off-shore venue is not finalised to host Pakistan's matches, the PCB will still earn millions of dollars for the additional games allotted to India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Morgan and ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat told reporters after the meeting that the PCB had put legal proceedings on hold till a decision on the venues was reached.
"This meeting was the first occasion to settle misunderstandings," Lorgat said. "All we did today was to clarify to the PCB that there will be no matches in Pakistan." Morgan added: "We want to ensure Pakistan remains a host nation and we stress the importance of Pakistan as a cricketing nation."
The impasse is expected to end when Morgan meets Sharad Pawar, the powerful head of the World Cup organising committee who takes over as ICC president next year, and PCB chief Ijaz Butt in London on June 19. "We had constructive discussions (at Monday's meeting) 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.
"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." Morgan ruled out switching the 2011 World Cup to Australia and New Zealand, the designated hosts of the 2015 event. "We did discuss the possibility of giving the 2011 World Cup to Australia and New Zealand, but that is not an option," he said. "Those two countries will hold the tournament in 2015".
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