LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has embarked on a diplomatic bid to retrieve what benefits it still can from the 2011 World Cup and narrow the widening rift that seems to have developed between it and the Asian bloc, after the International Cricket Council (ICC) unanimously voted last month that Pakistan would not be the location for any of the matches. Following the initiation of legal action by the PCB against the decision, a way forward seems to be emerging.

PCB chairman Ijaz Butt is on a trip to meet counterparts in Sri Lanka, and possibly India following former ICC president Ehsan Mani’s suggestion to keep ‘back-channel communications’ with the ICC and its member countries open throughout the dispute. "Ijaz will meet Sri Lanka Cricket interim committee head Somachandra De Silva in Colombo and then travel to Delhi to meet ICC vice president Sharad Pawar on Monday regarding the World Cup decision," a PCB spokesman said on Friday.

The spokesman said the chairman was also due to visit Bangladesh before going to South Africa to attend the semi-finals and final of the Indian Premier League. "The chairman will also meet the head of the Bangladesh Cricket Board and will visit South Africa where he is due to meet the officials of various other boards," added the spokesman.