ICC for World Cup exclusion Pakistan Changed

In the first official response to the ICC's decision to exclude Pakistan from hosting the 2011 World Cup, the Pakistan board has issued a legal notice to cricket's governing body, calling the decision to do so discriminatory and "legally flawed."

The ICC decided at a recent board meeting in Dubai to take away Pakistan's share, as one of four co-hosts, of the World Cup matches. The move came after terrorist attacks on the Sri Lankan team during their February-March tour, which was itself the first major bilateral contest in Pakistan since October 2007. A number of teams since then had refused to visit in the wake of an unsettled and increasingly violent domestic backdrop. The meeting also said that international cricket was unlikely to return to Pakistan till 2011.

Ijaz Butt, chairman of PCB, had hitherto maintained a stony silence on the decision, to the ire of much of the population here. But at a press conference at the board's HQ in Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium, flanked by senior officials and legal advisors, he said that the manner in which the ICC decision was taken was "legally flawed...unfair and discriminatory." Pakistan's gripe, Butt clarified, was that the status of the 2011 World Cup was not on the original agenda of the ICC Board meeting on April 17 and 18 (when the decision was made), the implication being that Pakistan wasn't given a fair opportunity to defend its case as a co-host.

"This issue was not on the agenda," Butt said. "There was a discussion of the Sri Lankan attacks on the agenda and this topic came up. They never gave us notice and it was not on the agenda. We want to revoke the decision full stop."

The legal notice has been sent to the ICC president David Morgan and under the ICC's constitution, the PCB is asking for the matter to be referred to the disputes resolution committee. "We are most concerned about the way the decision was taken. We believe more should and could have been done before the decision was taken and we will push for the matter to be expedited," Butt said.