Pakistan could 'host' World Cup matches in UAE

The ICC will consider allowing Pakistan to "outsource" its allocation of 2011 World Cup matches to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, according to David Morgan, the ICC chairman. Delegates from the ICC and the four host nations held a four-hour meeting at Lord's on Monday to discuss Pakistan's position as World Cup co-hosts in the wake of the March 3 terror attacks outside the Gadaffi Stadium in Lahore.

Pakistan, as per the previous decision of ICC Development International (the council's commercial arm), will not host matches at the 2011 tournament, but the PCB will still be recognised as hosts and retain fees from its original allocation of 14 matches. Just where those games will be played remains the chief point of contention, however, with co-hosts India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh keen to share the 14 games between them, and the PCB proposing an outsourcing arrangement with the United Arab Emirates.

"The options are that the games could be reallocated amongst the three other host nations, but we have not ruled out the prospect of some of Pakistan's games perhaps being played in what might be termed a fifth country," Morgan said. "We have our plans in place for the majority of the matches, if not all of them, to be staged in the Indian subcontinent.

"It is the commercial board of ICC that has to make the decision in terms of the location of those 14 matches. Ideally it would be very good if the four host nations could come up with a recommendation. Whether that will occur or not is uncertain at the moment."

Morgan said a final decision could be made in the next fortnight and the PCB had agreed to defer legal proceedings against the ICC while negotiations are taking place.

The 'compromise meeting' on Monday was organised after the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) mounted a strong legal challenge against the ICC and the other co-hosts after the ICC board decided in April to take away all its World Cup matches due to the worsening security situation in the country. The PCB, however, have alleged that several "procedural lapses" occurred in arriving at the decision and claimed that it was not given a fair hearing on the issue. It's understood that senior officials associated with the tournament are keen that the event is not caught in a legal tangle, which would cause significant delays in preparation.

There could possibly be another round of discussions this week but it appears that Pakistan has already made significant gains. Significantly, Monday's meeting agreed that the PCB will get US$ 10.5 million as hosting fee (US$ 750,000 per match) for the 14 matches it was originally slated to host, irrespective of whether they actually host one or not.

"The four hosts confirmed their understanding of the ICC Board's previous decision, that Pakistan remains a co-host and retains its host fees for the 14 matches originally scheduled to take place there, before the Board's decision to remove the country as a host location for the tournament," the ICC said in a statement. "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 tournament's central organising committee will also decide upon a location and management structure for the 2011 World Cup secretariat, the ICC said. It is understood that Pakistan will be given adequate represention in the secretariat, which is the operations hub of the tournament. The secretariat was originally to be based in Lahore before it was shifted to Mumbai after the ICC board's decision. Apparently, the PCB wants the secretariat to be based in Dubai.

Then again, India appears to have diluted its hardline stance on the entire issue after having taken the lead in shifting the World Cup secretariat to Mumbai and forming a new organising committee without Pakistani representation. However, the BCCI is still expected to strongly oppose any move to hold Pakistan's matches at a neutral venue, particularly in the UAE. Indian officials have said that such a move would "dilute the concept" of hosting the event in the sub-continent. As of now, it appears that Pakistan will agree to host "only some of its 14 matches" in the UAE, possibly Abu Dhabi, and leave the rest to be shared among other the other co-hosts.

Morgan, meanwhile, added that a proposal to shift the 2011 World Cup to Australia and New Zealand "was not an option."

"Although behind the clock, the plans in the India subcontinent are still far more advanced than anything we could put together in Australasia," Morgan said. "The option of playing the 2015 World Cup in the subcontinent and the 2011 World Cup in Australasia is not one that I am prepared to contemplate."

Both Morgan and Haroon Lorgat, chief executive of the ICC, defended the move to relocate matches from Pakistan, arguing that the council's other member nations had voted not to play there for the forseeable future.

"First choice is to have Pakistan playing cricket at home, but we have got to accept that something has occured that changed the cricketing landscape," Lorgat said. "Bi-laterally members are not willing to go to Pakistan. If we have the World Cup and try to schedule it in Pakistan it will not happen. Those member teams will not participate in Pakistan. We have to delivery the World Cup and we want Pakistan to be part of that delivery.

"The priority is to ensure that cricket is played. We have to deliver a World Cup for all of the members. It is not a commercial decision ... it's to ensure that we get the World Cup played and that we are able to deliver it successfully. We've had the experience of the Champions Trophy and you saw how that transpired. We cannot make the same mistake."