Thaindian News

Lahore, July 13 (ANI): Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Ijaz Butt will not attend the World Cup 2011 logo unveiling ceremony to be held in Mumbai on July 14, and has instead appointed Director (cricket operations), Zakir Khan to represent the board at the function.

However, the PCB has still not decided whether to participate in the two-day meeting of the World Cup Central Organising Committee (COC) on July 15 and 16, The Daily Times reports.

“The PCB hierarchy is still undecided about someone attending the two-day meeting where Pakistan has one more opportunity to plead its case of hosting its share of the World Cup matches.

Zakir is being sent for the logo launch ceremony to ensure Pakistan’s presence as a joint host, but no decision has been taken on attending the meeting for which there is still some time,” sources privy to the board said.

Sources said the board is seeking legal advice before taking a final decision on its participation in the meeting.

The PCB is hesitant to attend the meeting as it is currently engaged in a legal battle with the International Cricket Council (ICC) after the apex cricket authority decided against holding any matches of the 2011 World Cup in Pakistan.

The ICC shifted the games from Pakistan to the other three host nations - India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh - citing security reasons, but the PCB maintains that since the security scenario is more or less the same in all other three countries, the World Cup should be shifted from the sub-continent to Australia and New Zealand.

The PCB is also pushing to host its share of matches at neutral venues such as Dubai and Abu-Dhabi, but the ICC has rejected this move.

The ICC has ensured that Pakistan would not lose any money from the shift of the matches, and would get its hosting fee of 10.5 million dollars. (ANI)