A threat from the International Cricket Council to terminate a YouTube cricket channel containing a trove of rare footage, unless the Australian fan behind it removed the content, has been downplayed after fears the collection would disappear into the ether.

Cricket tragics were told to effectively start panic-downloading on Thursday morning after an alarming post on social media by self-confessed "mega fan" Rob Moody urging supporters to immediately save his videos.

The ICC, which is citing copyright infringements, declined to comment but a source familiar with the issue described the organisation's interactions with Moody as "amicable" and said if it had wanted to shut him down it would have dealt directly with YouTube instead.

Moody, better known online as robelinda2, has 641,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel. Since joining in November 2010, his videos have been viewed nearly 700 million times.