LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) will be richer by $12.5 million for forfeiting all 14 matches of the 2011-World Cup.

According to the final settlement over the issue, which had almost damaged PCB’s relations with the International Cricket Council (ICC), both the parties mutually agreed on the said amount.

It is learnt that while the ICC will pay the PCB $10.5 million as hosting fees of the 14 matches, another sum of $2 million in addition to that will also be paid to help the PCB recover losses from not earning any gate and parking money, etc.

In return, the PCB will have no role in hosting the 14 matches, which have been allotted to three other hosts of the mega event, namely, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

The ICC had striped Pakistan as hosts of the extravaganza on security grounds in July this year. The ICC also shifted the World Cup secretariat from Pakistan to India as it all happened after the Sri Lankan cricket team was attacked in Lahore in March this year.

The PCB had served a legal notice on the ICC besides filing a petition in a local court against the decision of shifting the secretariat. It may be mentioned here that according to the hosts’ submission documents, any member of the four original hosts is liable to receive match host fees and compensation for being deprived of the gate money in case of being ousted as the host.

Experts had criticised the PCB for serving the notice and filing a case against the ICC as it had spent around Rs8 million on both the legal cases.

But PCB’s legal adviser Mark Guy, who earned £70,000 for just serving the legal notice, suggested to his client not to take the case to the World Court of Arbitration in Sports and advised them to recover the financial damages only.

On the other hand, the ICC also approached the PCB for an out-of-court settlement or be ready to bear all the legal costs.

Consequently, after the negotiations, an agreement was eventually signed between the two parties on Aug 27 in Dubai, in terms of which the PCB shall receive the sum of $2 million over and above the host fees of $10.5 million and the PCB in return would no longer be a co-host of the event.

The ICC had included the above said amount in the account of World Cup costs.