By Omar Khalid, IANS,
Karachi : Pakistan Saturday threw a counter punch at the International Cricket Council (ICC) by serving it with a legal notice on its decision to move the 2011 World Cup matches from this country over security fears.
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Ijaz Butt told reporters in Lahore that the PCB challenged the ICC’s decision to strip Pakistan of its status as a World Cup co-host.
“We have sent a legal notice through our lawyer Mark Gay to ICC president David Morgan,” said Butt.
“We don’t think the ICC decision is sound on legal grounds. If they say the security situation in Pakistan prompted this decision, then the security situation in India and Sri Lanka is also not good,” the PCB chief stressed.
Butt revealed that the board would try to get a restraining order against the ICC.
The PCB’s move comes after intense pressure at home to counter the ICC decision. There were even calls from various quarters for sacking Butt and other senior PCB officials after they failed to stop the ICC from moving World Cup games out of the country.
The ICC last month stripped Pakistan of its share of World Cup matches – fourteen in all with one semi-final – citing the “uncertain security situation” in the country.
Co-hosts India will now host 29 matches, inclusive of a semi-final and the final, while Sri Lanka will host 12 matches with one-semi-final and Bangladesh eighth matches and the opening ceremony.