Pakistan wants to take the ICC to the Court of Arbitration for Sport over being stripped of its co-hosting status for the 2011 World Cup.
The Pakistan Cricket Board served the world governing body with legal papers on Saturday.
"We have served a legal notice to the International Cricket Council for this discriminatory decision," PCB chairman Ijaz Butt said. "Now, the ball is in the ICC's court as they have to send our legal notice to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to decide this issue."
The ICC removed Pakistan as a co-host at last month's board meeting in the United Arab Emirates due to security reasons. India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka were all retained as co-hosts. Pakistan's co-hosting status effectively ended when gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore on March 3 during a test. Six police officers and a driver were killed and seven members of the Sri Lankan touring party were injured in the attack. However, Butt claimed the 2011 World Cup wasn't on the agenda of the ICC board meeting and said no proper security assessment of Pakistan or the other co-hosts was done.
"We are more concerned about the manner in which the ICC took this decision," he said. "There was no notice prior to the meeting that the decision of this nature would be taken." This is the first official reaction from the PCB since the ICC removed Pakistan as a co-host on April 17.
{{/usCountry}}"We are more concerned about the manner in which the ICC took this decision," he said. "There was no notice prior to the meeting that the decision of this nature would be taken." This is the first official reaction from the PCB since the ICC removed Pakistan as a co-host on April 17.
{{/usCountry}}"We had to wait as we were seeking the legal advice on this issue," Butt said. "We believe that more could and should have been done to review the actual situation, to deal with the matter on a nondiscriminatory basis.
"The PCB will push for this matter to be expedited, so the PCB's status can be restored as soon as possible."
Security concerns have long been growing in Pakistan. They forced Australia to postpone its scheduled tour to Pakistan in March 2008. The ICC first postponed and then shifted the Champions Trophy from Pakistan to South Africa, while India canceled its tour in January in the wake of last November's Mumbai attacks that strained relations between the subcontinental neighbors.
The ICC has already moved its World Cup headquarters from Lahore to Mumbai and increased India's allocation of matches.