LONDON, June 21: England, New Zealand and Sri Lanka are to receive part of their World Cup revenue withheld by the International Cricket Council (ICC), the sport’s ruling body said on Friday.

But the ICC decided not to return any money to India, who had all the $8 million-9 million due to them for taking part in the World Cup held back after their players refused to sign tournament contracts tying them to the official sponsors.

England will get $1.5 million of the $3.5 million withheld after refusing to play their World Cup match against Zimbabwe in Harare because of security concerns.

New Zealand, who boycotted their game in Kenya for the same reasons, are to receive $0.5 million of the $2.5 million withheld.

Sri Lanka will get all the $0.5 million kept back after they were late in returning their player contracts before the tournament.

The decision to pay the money was made after the Board of ICC (Development) International had been briefed on the claim for compensation by its commercial partner, Global Cricket Corporation (GCC), in Monaco.

The GCC, which was responsible for selling the tournament’s marketing and broadcasting rights, is claiming around $80 million in lost revenues after the two matches failed to go ahead.

Ater examining the GCC claim the Board decided that the likely maximum claims made against these countries would be unlikely to exceed the amounts withheld.

“The nature of the claims allowed us to return money to three of our Boards,” ICC President Ehsan Mani said.

“In relation to the Indian Board, it is not possible at this stage to assess the likely maximum claims and all countries made the prudent financial decision to continue to withhold the Indian Board’s World Cup distribution at this stage.”—Reuters