India reject Champions Trophy in October 2009

The Indian board has rejected suggestions made during the ICC's chief executives' committee meeting in Dubai on Wednesday to conduct the Champions Trophy in October 2009 because it will clash with the "very important" one-day series at home against Australia. The issue now passes to the ICC Board, which meets on Thursday.

"We have said that the Champions Trophy in October will not be possible for us since we are hosting Australia at that time,"

Niranjan Shah, the BCCI secretary, told Cricinfo.

"The one-day series against Australia is a very important fixture for us. It has been scheduled and we can't do anything about it. All the boards will have to find another solution or window for the Champions Trophy."

The BCCI is planning to hold the first of the seven one-day matches against Australia on October 13, three days after the conclusion of the Champions Twenty20 League, which it is organising along with Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa (CSA).

However, the Pakistan Cricket Board's chief operating officer Shafqat Naghmi remained hopeful the Champions Trophy would be held next October.

"The future tours programme was discussed in detail on the first day of the meeting and besides India other countries have also said they can't change their prior commitments,"

he told PTI.

"But Pakistan is pushing for the tournament to be held in October because as it is the ICC has an agreement with its broadcasters that it can't postpone the tournament for more than 13 months."

The ICC board had, on August 24, decided to postpone the Champions Trophy that was originally scheduled to be held in Pakistan from September 12 after five of the eight participating nations expressed security concerns about the host country. David Morgan, the ICC president, said

"it was considered prudent to postpone the event to October 2009, a time when we all hope conditions may be more acceptable for all the competing teams".

The concept of an alternative structure to bilateral tours, including an enhanced Test championship, with the ICC taking a greater central "ownership" of the programme, was also discussed at Wednesday's meeting. However, sources said it did not appear to make much headway during the CEC meeting with a number of boards unconvinced about the idea, especially about the extent of their ownership and role under such an arrangement.

The concept was kicked off during the ICC annual conference in Dubai in July, and Cricket Australia was entrusted with the job of coming up with a plan. The key considerations were: all three formats of international cricket should be protected and promoted with Test cricket identified as the pinnacle of the sport; "icon" Test series must be protected; ICC should look at ways of taking greater central "ownership" of international cricket outside its events or at least providing for more consistency in marketing/promotion; and the concept of a Test Championship and/or play-off should be explored further.

Proteas dismayed by ICC decision

The International Cricket Council’s (ICC) decision on Thursday to keep the Champions Trophy in Pakistan was met with dismay by South Africa’s team.

The ICC decided the tournament would go ahead there in September, despite reservations expressed by players from New Zealand, Australia and England.

The South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA) said they shared those concerns and would seek an urgent meeting with Cricket South Africa (CSA) to discuss the situation.

“The South African team are very disappointed with today’s decision and remain extremely concerned about safety and security in Pakistan,”

Tony Irish, chief executive officer of SACA, told Reuters on Thursday.

“We hope Cricket South Africa will sit down with us and talk to us about whether they are seriously considering sending a team to the Champions Trophy in Pakistan or not,”

Irish said.

SA squad for Champions Trophy announced

South Africa have included four uncapped players in the provisional squad of 30 players for the Champions Trophy in September. The rest of the squad have international experience, but fast bowler Charl Langeveldt, who opted out of the India tour following his controversial selection ahead of Andre Nel, has been omitted.

Fast bowler Yusuf Abdullah and Ethy Mbhalati and allrounders Rory Kleinveldt and Johann Louw find a place in the list of 30. Louw was named the Most Valuable Player in the SA Cricketers’ Association’s awards: the 29-year-old Dolphins’ medium-pacer took 41 wickets at 18.31 in the SuperSport Series, 24 wickets at 14.62 in the MTN Domestic Championship and 12 wickets at 15.16 in the Standard Bank Pro20 competition.

Provisional squad: Yusuf Abdullah, Hashim Amla, Goolam Bodi, Loots Bosman, Johan Botha, Mark Boucher, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Herschelle Gibbs, Paul Harris, Jacques Kallis, Rory Kleinveldt, Johann Louw, Ethy Mbhalati, Neil McKenzie, Albie Morkel, Morne Morkel, Andre Nel, Makhaya Ntini, Justin Ontong, Robin Peterson, Alviro Petersen, Vernon Philander, Ashwell Prince, Graeme Smith, Dale Steyn, Alfonso Thomas, Thandi Tshabalala, Morne van Wyk, Monde Zondeki.

No player refused to tour Pakistan: NZ Cricket

The New Zealand Cricket said that none of the New Zealand cricketers has refused to go to Pakistan on security basis.

Spokesman of the NZ Cricket, Steve Edison said that the New Zealand cricket team’s tour of Pakistan for a three-ODI series before the Champions Trophy would be finalized after the security report to be released by the ICC on Sunday.

New Zealand will play three One-day Internationals on the tour of Pakistan in late August.

Edison said that no Kiwi player has so far refused to go on the tour of Pakistan on the basis of security.

Australia undecided on players who refuse to tour Pakistan

Cricket Australia is yet to consider the position of players who refuse to tour Pakistan for the Champions Trophy. James Sutherland, the CA chief executive, said the board was currently interested in understanding the security issues and concerns and about whether the tournament will go ahead.

"Then we get down to the decision for us as to whether we're comfortable,"

Sutherland told the Age.

Australia have till August 15 to name their final squad for the Champions Trophy and Sutherland expects to have a better picture of the situation by then.

"We have a high level of confidence in the consultants that have been engaged to work with ICC and the authorities in Pakistan. Now it is a matter of getting a better understanding in the coming couple of weeks from those consultants of how successful that implementation has been."

Andrew Symonds, the Australian allrounder, has expressed his reservations over touring Pakistan, a country that in the past year has had a state of emergency imposed on it, suffered the assassination of a former prime minister, followed by riots and bomb attacks on two of its cities. But other players, including Shane Watson and Nathan Hauritz, have said they will be happy to play anywhere as long as they get to represent Australia.

Earlier this year Australia postponed their tour of Pakistan due to security concerns. They are now scheduled to visit the country for bi-lateral series in 2009 and 2010.

Australia could take Champions Trophy decision in two weeks

Australia could decide within a fortnight whether to pull out of September's Champions Trophy in Pakistan.

According to a foreign news agency, Australian Cricketers Association (ACA) chief executive Paul Marsh said a decision will not be made before it get reports from its security experts and the Federation of International Cricket Associations.

Cricket Australia is expected to take a decision within two weeks, according to their spokesman Peter Young.

Australia players could pull out of Champions Trophy

Ricky Ponting says Australia's players are still uneasy about visiting Pakistan for the Champions Trophy later this year. Ponting's comments came as an Australian newspaper reported that some members of the squad had told their team-mates they would boycott the trip if it went ahead, even if the security advice was positive.

Australia postponed their Test tour of Pakistan earlier this year due to safety concerns and although the ICC is happy with the current security situation there, the Champions Trophy will be discussed at an ICC executive board meeting later this month. Ponting confirmed some individual players had concerns about touring Pakistan.

"We don't know if we're going, and if we do go, we don't know if individuals are going to pull out,"

Ponting told AAP.

"But what we know right now is, yes, there is some apprehension amongst some of the players and that was stated last summer. I don't think that would have changed until now.

"It might change in the coming weeks, if we get some good news from the security reports over there, then the individual's mindset might change a little bit. What happened last summer was probably something that made us all sit back and think about it a little more.

"If Cricket Australia and the players' association decide that we go, then it will be an individual's decision, as every tour is. But there will be some apprehension for sure."

The Sydney Morning Herald quoted an unnamed player as saying several members of the team would not visit Pakistan regardless of the security assessment.

"It is going to come down to the individual's decision,"

the player said.

"We have talked about it, and there are some guys who will go if security advice says it's okay. But there are others who have said they won't go, regardless. At this stage, we are waiting to hear more."

The New Zealand allrounder Jacob Oram has already expressed his concerns about visiting Pakistan for an ODI tour before the Champions Trophy. Ponting, who led Australia to the Champions Trophy triumph in India in 2006, said other players would almost certainly have similar worries.

"I'm sure some of the England players will have some concerns as well as a lot of the New Zealand players who have been confronted with this stuff before, in Sri Lanka and Pakistan,"

Ponting said.

"It just won't be Australian players. There will be a few other teams who will be thinking long and hard if the tour does go ahead there."

ICC expresses satisfaction over Champions Trophy arrangements

A four-member delegation of the International Cricket Council (ICC) has expressed satisfaction over the arrangements taken Champions Trophy, which will be held in Pakistan from 11 to 28 September.

The ICC delegation was briefed about the arrangements taken Champions Trophy in a meeting here on Friday.

The ICC delegation is in Lahore to inspect arrangements for this year's Champions Trophy to be hosted by Pakistan.

This visit is seen as significant after the concerns being expressed by visiting teams about the security situation in Pakistan.

The ICC delegation includes event and communications managers who met with Pakistan Cricket Board officials here.

They will also visit venues in Karachi, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad and Multan where Champions Trophy matches will be held in September.

ICC's General Manager, commercial Campbell Jameson said that issues related to budget, match schedules, match timings, venues and dates have been discussed with PCB.

PCB Chief Operating Officer Shafqat Naghmi said that both parties had discussed modalities and they are on track for holding the champions trophy in September.