Pakistan have made it through to the semi-finals of the World Twenty20

Pakistan will be paid more than £6m for being co-hosts of the 2011 World Cup, despite being stripped of staging matches over security concerns.

The International Cricket Council will pay Pakistan's cricket board, who had threatened legal action after its allocated 14 matches had been removed.

The PCB would have got around £460,000 for each game in their country.

Fellow hosts Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka are to forego the fee for staging games that would have been in Pakistan.

The decision was made at a meeting involving representatives of the four host countries and the PCB has now put any legal action "on hold pending further discussions".

There has been no international cricket in Pakistan since seven Sri Lanka players were injured when gunmen attacked their team bus on the way to the Gadaffi stadium for a Test on 3 March.

There are already four host nations, there could be a fifth ICC president David Morgan

"There was a great deal of sympathy within the meeting for Pakistan's position, as the issues its cricket administrators face are completely beyond their control," said ICC president David Morgan.

"What we need to do is to settle this matter as quickly as possible within the ICC family as we need to press on with our preparations for the ICC Cricket World Cup, which is less than two years away."

The security concerns over playing in Pakistan saw the country's recent series against Australia played in the United Arab Emirates.

The ICC will meet to decide on where to relocate the fixtures that would have been in Pakistan and could choose to play them in the UAE.

"There are already four host nations, there could be a fifth," added Morgan.

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