PCB not ready to give up World Cup host status

KARACHI - Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Ijaz Butt said Wednesday that he will continue to make efforts to revive Pakistan’s status as a 2011 World Cup host even after the event’s three organisers redistributed the countrys share of matches amongst themselves at a meeting in Mumbai Tuesday.

The PCB chairman told IANS that he will have a meeting with the International Cricket Council (ICC) president David Morgan in Dubai later this month in which the issue will be extensively discussed.

Butt also denied that Pakistan boycotted the meeting called by the Central Organising Committee (COC) of the World Cup 2011.

“We did not boycott the meeting. But since it is a legal matter I do not want to make any comment on that, but I can tell you that we are still trying to solve the matter through talks, he said.

The COC which met in Mumbai redistributed the 14 matches originally given to Pakistan. Eight went to India, four to Sri Lanka and two to Bangladesh. The PCB decided against attending the meeting in spite of getting an invitation from the COC.

Following the Mumbai meeting, hopes are slim that Pakistan will win back its share of World Cup matches but Butt is not ready to give up yet.

He is scheduled to meet Morgan July 27 or 28 but refrained from disclosing the agenda of the meeting.

“We are trying to solve the matter out of court and I am going to meet the ICC president in a bid to do that,” he said.

PCB opted to go to court after the ICC decided to strip Pakistan of its World Cup 2011 matches following an attack on Sri Lankan players in Lahore in March this year.