Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ejaj Butt lambasted ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat for his "habit of twisting statements on Pakistan."
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ejaj Butt lambasted ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat for his "habit of twisting statements on Pakistan" and denied being told to be ready to shift 2011 World Cup matches to another country in case of unfavourable security situations.
On his return from a meeting of the 2011 World Cup Organising Committee in Delhi, Butt told reporters at the Lahore airport that no discussion was held among the four host countries and the ICC on shifting matches from Pakistan due to any security reasons.
"I don't know but Mr Haroon Lorgat has this habit of twisting statements on Pakistan," Butt said.
After the Tuesday meeting in Delhi, Lorgat had said that the situation in Pakistan has been a "consideration" for ICC.
"This is not something we discussed today, except to ask the organisers to consider alternate host city venues within the country as well as alternate country venues in the event of something being not favourable in one of the particular host countries," Lorgat said.
Denying that ICC told them to be ready to shift matches to another country if situation demanded so, Butt said, "What was discussed was that Pakistan could shift matches from one city to another internally if the need arise."
The PCB chief was also very upset earlier this year when Lorgat made some comments about the ICC having apprehensions about sending its match officials to Pakistan to supervise the one-day series involving Sri Lanka.
But the ICC chief executive later issued a clarification insisting he was quoted out of context by the media. Butt said Pakistan was aware of the importance of hosting
the World Cup matches and would do its bit in the preparations with the other host countries.
He said Pakistan needed to be supported by the ICC and other countries in its efforts to host international matches. Butt also said the World Cup Organising Committee, headed by former BCCI president Sharad Pawar, had accepted the appointment of Salman Butt as managing director of the World Cup secretariat which would be based in Lahore.
Admitting that the organisers have been asked to expedite preparation, Butt said, "Yes, the ICC has told us that we are runnning behind schedule and we need to speed up things for the tournament."
The PCB chairman was accompanied to the World Cup meeting by chief operating officer Saleem Altaf and manager international cricket operations Subhan Ahmed.
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