The International Cricket Council will not release India's fee for participating in the 2003 World Cup any time soon.

Making this announcement at a press conference in Mumbai today after the two-day meeting of the ICC's cricket committee (management), ICC president Ehsaan Mani said: "The ICC has responded to the claims made by the GCC [Global Cricket Corporation, the company that has bought the rights to all ICC events up to 2007] in June this year. We are now waiting to hear from them. Until then, the executives have discussed that no money will be released to India."

The ICC had suggested taking the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland, after the Board of Control for Cricket in India sent altered agreements following the Indian players' objection to the clause against ambush marketing, and threatened to withhold the participation money pending a resolution of the BCCI's contracts' dispute with the governing body.

In July, BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya said the contracts issue would be resolved amicably and it would not be necessary to go for arbitration.

But Mani said why Dalmiya said so was because both the ICC and the BCCI are fully aware of the nature of the GCC's claims.

The GCC has claimed US $76 million in damages from the ICC to make up for losses allegedly sustained because of problems with the conduct and marketing of the World Cup in southern Africa, like England and New Zealand refusing to play in Zimbabwe and Kenya, respectively, and the refusal of the Indian players to honour all the clauses of the ICC player contracts.