Matches in the 2011 World Cup due to be staged in Pakistan will not take place in the United Arab Emirates, International Cricket Council President David Morgan said here on Thursday. Instead the 14 fixtures will, despite the wishes of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), take place in the three Indian subcontinent co-host nations of India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Morgan said the Dubai-based ICC had looked at staging matches in a “fifth country”, amidst speculation that matches could be shifted to the UAE. But he told reporters at Lord's here on Thursday: “The (ICC) board has 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, that is India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.” How many games will be played in each of those countries has yet to be decided. The ICC has referred the matter back to the tournament's central organizing committee and Morgan said he expected a decision within a fortnight. The ICC ruled out matches in violence-hit Pakistan following the militant attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore on March 3. But Pakistan, which last weekend beat Sri Lanka in the World Twenty20 final at Lord's, remains a co-host of the World Cup. Morgan, flanked by ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat, stressed the PCB, which has taken legal action against the ICC, would still receive a hosting fee of $750,000 per match - $10.5 million in total. Morgan, formerly chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), said the failure to announce where the games would be played was not down to the PCB's legal action. Following last year's Mumbai terror attacks, security concerns have also been expressed regarding the safety of India as a venue for international cricket while a long-running civil war in Sri Lanka has only recently ended. But Morgan said Pakistan's case was not comparable to that of its Asian neighbors. “The situation in Pakistan is different. The tragic happenings in Lahore when a cricket team was targeted and the player control team was targeted, that changed the landscape of safety and security in cricket, in sport generally and in terms of sporting events of an international nature in Pakistan.” On the first day of the board meeting in London on Wednesday, the ICC paved the way for a day-nighter trial next year and approved the use of video referrals in the five-day format. The ICC cast aside concerns that the authority of on-field match officials will be undermined, and will allow the batsman and fielding captain to refer decisions to the television official from October. They will be limited to two unsuccessful referrals per innings. A barrier to day-night tests is finding a suitable replacement for the traditional red ball that is clearly visible under lights. The ICC Board also agreed Wednesday that: – Captains of sides who are fined three times for slow-over rates in a year will be banned for one match in that format. – Only umpires, not batsman, can decide when play should be suspended for bad light when conditions are “unreasonable or dangerous,” rather than merely “unsuitable” as is currently the rule.
