PCB agrees for out-of-court settlement with ICC over 2011 World Cup hosting issue

KARACHI - The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has agreed for an out-of-court settlement to end its legal battle against the International Cricket Council.

The PCB, which had lodged a case against the ICC for stripping 2011 World Cup matches from Pakistan due to security reasons, said it has decided the end the issue outside the court of law.

“We have decided 90-95 percent that the matter of the World Cup 2011 will be settled out-of-court as Pakistan remains the co-host of the mega event. The legal course has ended,” PCB chairman Ijaz Butt said.

Butt said the ICC has agreed to compensated Pakistan a ’substantial amount’ after it settles the matter out of the court.

“Pakistan will get the hosting rights fee of 10.5 million dollaers and apart from that the ICC will compensate us a substantial amount which at this point of time I don’t want to reveal,” The Daily Times quoted Butt, as saying.

The PCB had launched a legal battle against the apex cricket governing body after it re-allocated Pakistan’s share of World Cup matches to other three host nations following a terror attack on visiting Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore in March in which seven Lankan players were injured and eight security personnel killed.

The ICC also moved the World Cup secretariat from Lahore to Mumbai in the wake of the attack.

It also shifted the Champions Trophy to South Africa after several teams refused to visit Pakistan amid heightened security fears. (ANI)