ICC President David Morgan said the Dubai-based ICC had looked at staging matches in a ´fifth country´, amidst speculation that matches could be shifted to the UAE. But he told reporters at Lord´s here on Thursday: "The (ICC) board has considered that but it has decided the 14 matches originally allocated to Pakistan should take place in the three other Indian sub-continent countries of the Full Members, that is India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh."
How many games will be played in each of those countries has yet to be decided. The ICC has referred the matter back to the tournament´s central organising committee and Morgan said he expected a decision within a fortnight.
"We need a recommendation from those four host nations, including Pakistan. They will come forward with the location of those matches to the commercial board of the ICC."
Asked how long it would take for the ICC to receive that decision, Morgan said: "I would expect two weeks."
The ICC ruled out matches in violence-hit Pakistan following the militant attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore on March 3 while it was on its way to the Gadaffi stadium to resume a Test match. But Pakistan, who last weekend beat Sri Lanka in the World Twenty20 final at Lord´s, remains a co-host of the World Cup.
Morgan, flanked by ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat, stressed the PCB, who have taken legal action against the ICC, would still receive a hosting fee of 750,000 dollars per match - 10.5 million dollars in total.
ICC also decided to scrap Kenya of hosting rights of the Youth World Cup and grant it to New Zealand saying that the African nation were not in a position to put on the tournament.
The switch comes just eight months before the event is due to take place and sees it returning to New Zealand for the first time since 2002. Kenya, a non-Test cricket nation, was awarded the tournament in 2006 having previously been a sub-host, along with Zimbabwe, of the senior 2003 World Cup which was staged mainly in South Africa.
But at its board meeting here at Lord´s Cricket Ground, the ICC received a report saying it was "unrealistic" to expect the African country to be ready to host given the large amount of work still needing to be done.
The ICC said New Zealand would be the location for the tournament, subject to the agreement of satisfactory terms.
Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, said on Thursday: "We have been working with Kenya to monitor their progress towards staging the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup for some time, with visits to the locations earmarked for matches and regular reports to the ICC Board.
"Regrettably, the conclusion reached was that the amount of work still to be done to get many of the venues ready was such that retaining Kenya as a host represented too great a risk to the successful staging of the event."
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