ICC to release more World Cup money to members

The International Cricket Council will release more of the money it withheld from its members following the ICC Cricket World Cup 2003 and will change the formula used to retain the remainder of these funds it was announced today.

South Africa will be the biggest beneficiary of these decisions as it had the most money withheld following the tournament while England, India and New Zealand will also benefit.

The Board of ICC's commercial arm, IDI, received an update on the progress of the negotiations with Global Cricket Corporation (GCC) and as a result was able to make a more detailed assessment of the claims than was previously possible.

On the basis of this assessment, the IDI Board decided that it should release more of the withheld money while still ensuring that it retained adequate funds to cover any potential liability.

IDI Chairman, Ehsan Mani, said that the decision reflected the Board's deeper understanding of the claim as well as the desire of the ICC to return money to its members as soon as possible.

"This money has always been our members' money and has been retained only to deal with the claims from GCC," said Mr Mani.

"During the meeting we have been able to get a more detailed understanding of the claims that are being made and this has allowed us to release this money and adjust the formula used to retain the remaining funds."

Under the new formula each country will contribute an equal share to the reserve pool established to deal with the GCC claims.

Previously four countries, South Africa, England, India and New Zealand had contributed more to the pool than other members due to either the size of its distribution in the case of South Africa or because of concerns over claims in relation to issues involving the three remaining countries.

The ICC has previously confirmed that it was withholding the following amounts from three countries:

It had also confirmed that South Africa had more money withheld from its distribution than India because of the original formula used to establish the reserve pool. This was as a result of South Africa being entitled to a significantly greater distribution from the tournament as the event host.

In making this announcement, the ICC also confirmed that it was not in a position to provide exact figures on the money that would be withheld from each country or returned because of the commercially sensitive nature of this material.

"The figures are obviously commercially sensitive so we are not in a position to give exact numbers," said Mr Mani.

"But what I can say is that under the new formula each country will be treated in exactly the same way with each member contributing the exactly same amount to the reserve fund.

"Those countries that had additional funds withheld will now receive a refund to bring them into line with the other members of the ICC."

For further information:

Brendan McClements
General Manager - Corporate Affairs
International Cricket Council
Ph + 44 (0) 20 7266 1818
Mob + 44 (0) 7786 194974