In first response to the England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) legal notice, the PCB had resolved to fight the case in court of law and even forwarded the notice to its England lawyers Addleshaw Goddard for legal opinion.

Goddard, however, in his legal opinion, showed some reservations which forced the PCB chairman not to go to court against the ECB and settle for a withdrawal of his statement, the sources said. Earlier, PCB’s lawyer Taffazul Hyder Rizvi in a press statement had vowed that the PCB was ready to defend the position on the issue in any court.

He is currently in London along with PCB chairman in connection with the case. Surprisingly, despite the fact the PCB had been facing its worst-ever crisis after reaching a conflict-like situation with the ICC and the ECB, only PCB’s lawyer Taffazul Rizvi accompanied Ijaz Butt to England while key officials Chief Operating Officer Wasim Bari, Director General Javed Miandad and Director Cricket International Zakir Khan were snubbed for the trip.

Sources disclosed that the PCB had not taken into confidence its rather depleted Governing Board on any of the issues as the PCB chairman was trying to tackle the matter on his own.

On the other hand, the ECB soon after facing allegations from Ijaz Butt conducted its two Board meetings to develop consensus on proceeding legally against the PCB chief.

The ECB held its first Board meeting when the ICC took action on a news report that the third ODI at the Oval was also ‘fixed’.

Soon after holding the meeting, the ECB spoke to the ICC President Sharad Pawar and got clearance of their players from the charges within hours.

The ECB then called a second Board meeting in which it was decided that a legal notice will be served on the PCB chairman.