England may pay forfeit to court favour

England are unlikely to take the International Cricket Council to court to try to recoup their full share of World Cup profits. Tim Lamb, the chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board, said yesterday that they would do their utmost to avoid legal action despite the potential forfeit of at least $3.5 million (£2.2m) which could eventually lead to mass sackings among English professionals.

"The only winner in that case will be lawyers, and I hope both sides will be mindful of that," said Lamb, who is in Johannesburg for the World Cup Final. "Do not forget that we haven't been fined yet. Money has only been withheld and we still believe we have a very strong case."

The ICC executive board decided to hang on to $3.5m of the $9m that England were due from World Cup profits because the team failed to fulfil their fixture against Zimbabwe in Harare. The world governing body also held back $3.5m due to New Zealand after they refused to play in Kenya.

India must wait for their entire share while a dispute over advertising and image rights is resolved. The ICC are concerned that the official sponsors of the tournament might have been affected by ambush marketing techniques.

The English authorities were expecting yesterday's decision, which was made in the expectation that the television rights holders, the Global Cricket Corporation, will seek a reduction in their fee. However, Lamb said: "Our case will be that we gave the ICC time to relocate the fixture to South Africa. If that had been done they would have had a match and not lost all their revenue."

There was clearly conciliation in the air and the ECB seem prepared to forfeit some cash, but not all that the ICC would wish for. It might save some jobs.

The ICC had some good news yesterday. They announced the World Cup had been completely free from match-fixing.