The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has launched a legal challenge against the International Cricket Council (ICC) following a decision to exclude the country from hosting the 2011 Cricket World Cup.

Pakistan had been due to co-host the tournament along with India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, but security concerns raised after a terrorist attack on the touring Sri Lankan cricket team in March led to the ICC stripping Pakistan of any involvement with the event. However, the PCB has now issued a legal notice against ICC president David Morgan through its lawyer, Mark Gay of London-based DLA Piper, and its legal advisor, Taffazul Rizvi, in a bid to get the decision overturned.

In a statement, PCB chair Ijaz Butt said: "The executive board [of the ICC], while taking this decision, completely failed to take into account that the law and order situation in the entire sub-continent is not exemplary. "If security and safety was the only reason, no security assessment of the other three co-hosts has been done."