Asian nations put conditional bid for cricket WC 2011

NEW DELHI: The Asian countries, including India, today submitted their bid for the 2011 World Cup, but said it was conditional since they had reservations over some of the financial policies of the International Cricket Council (ICC).
A Letter of Intent, signed by Pakistan Cricket Board’s director (Board operations) Saleem Altaf on behalf of India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, was dispatched this morning. The ICC will make the decision on the host country for the 2011 World Cup in its June meeting in Dubai, a Press Trust of India report from Pakistan said.
The countries have clarified in the Letter of Intent that they would not accept all the terms and conditions of ICC pertaining to hosting of the World Cup, the report quoted a top PCB official.
“We have informed the ICC that we have reservations on many issues like its financial model and exemption from certain government taxes,” the official said.
“At this point of time, we can assure the ICC that we could provide them stadiums for sponsors’ hoardings, excellent facilities for the teams and officials, and security. But at this point of time, we can’t assure the ICC on immigration, visa policies and exemption from taxes as the event is five years from now,” he said.
“Besides, the formula for the allocation of earnings for the host boards from the profits is also not acceptable to us,” he said.