The ICC announced yesterday that the IDI board had decided that the 14 World Cup matches awarded to Pakistan should not be held at neutral venues as proposed by the PCB. PCB Chairman Ejaz Butt said in a statement that the ICC decision was disappointing as he had thought that Pakistan had made significant progress to resolving the issue of where Pakistan would host its share of World Cup matches. “But no support from the Asian countries meant that Pakistan may not be able to physically host these games at venues of its choice,” he said.

ICC president David Morgan said in London that the neutral venue option was discussed at the meeting but was eventually ruled out. “A fifth country? The board considered that but it has decided the 14 matches originally allocated to Pakistan should take place in the three other Indian subcontinent countries of the full members,”Morgan said.

But an undeterred Pakistan Cricket Board said it would pursue its legal battle against the ICC for hosting rights. “We fully respect the IDI and it's capacity to make decisions, but our legal action will continue,” PCB chairman Ijaz Butt was quoted as saying by Cricinfo.

“We made six requests to the ICC, which we said must be met; four of them have been accepted, including the fact that we cannot be denied our hosting rights and the revenue from that.

“Two issues remain, one of which is the Abu Dhabi and Dubai option. This we will discuss at the COC meeting.” Pakistan’s persistence has already paid off to an extent with the nation standing to gain approximately $10.5 million without a match being played on its soil.

ICC’s commercial board (IDI) also reiterated that Lahore would no longer be the World Cup administrative headquarters, which has been shifted to Mumbai. “The IDI Board remains committed to resolve this issue as soon as possible as there is an urgent need to press on with arrangements for the ICC’s flagship event, now less than two years away,” Morgan stated.