England, New Zealand and Sri Lanka to receive World Cup payments

England, New Zealand and Sri Lanka will all receive part of the money witheld by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for World Cup contract infringements. India's payment, however, is to be witheld.

England and New Zealand, who refused to play World Cup matches in Zimbabwe and Kenya, will be paid part of the money held back after the tournament. While England will receive US$1.5 million out of $3.5 million withheld, New Zealand will get back $0.5 million of $2.5 million withheld.

"After examining the claim, the board was able to make an informed judgement on the likely maximum claims that would be made against these countries, and it was apparent that these are unlikely to exceed the amounts withheld," said an ICC release.

Ehsan Mani, the ICC's new president, said: "The nature of the claims allowed us to return money to three of our boards." The release stated that the IDI board would move towards a comprehensive response to the claim as soon as possible.

The decision was taken at Friday's meeting of the board of ICC Development International (IDI) in Monaco. The IDI also decided to return $0.5 million withheld from Sri Lanka, who did not return signed player contracts before the specified deadline.

But it's not such good news for India. The ICC, which faces likely compensation claims from the Global Cricket Corporation (GCC) for violation of crucial ambush-marketing clauses in the agreement between the two sides, has decided to withhold the payment due to India - estimated to be around US$9 million.

Mani said, "In relation to the Indian board, it is not possible at this stage to assess the likely maximum claims. All countries made the prudent financial decision to continue to withhold the Indian board's World Cup distribution at this stage."