Pakistan promise ‘heads of state’ security for Champions Trophy

Pakistan are willing to offer a security cover generally reserved for visiting heads of state to competing teams and officials during this September’s ICC Champions Trophy in a bid to calm down any security concerns.

A top Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official told ‘The News’ on Wednesday that water-tight security arrangements will be made to ensure the safety of the visiting players and officials during the Champions Trophy to be held in Pakistan for the first time. The tournament is under a cloud due to the current wave of bombings in the country that forced Australia to postpone a full Test and one-day tour earlier this month.

“We are ready to offer all possible assurances to assuage any fears regarding the safety of players and officials,”

said Shafqat Nagmi, the Board’s Chief Operating Officer.

“The Champions Trophy is still more than five months away and we are hopeful that things will get better in Pakistan in the coming days. We see no reason why anybody be talking about taking the tournament away from here,”

he added.

Naghmi said that Pakistan will provide personal bodyguards and other security measures to visiting players if they expressed any security concerns.

“The players and officials will be provided with a security cover generally reserved for visiting VIPs,”

he said.

Pakistan offered similar security assurances to Cricket Australia (CA) in a bid to convince it to send the Aussies for a bilateral series here in March-April but CA decided against approving that trip on security grounds.

Their move triggered speculations that competing teams like Australia may withdraw from the Champions Trophy as well. Already, reports have suggested that Australia and New Zealand have raised security concerns over the eight-nation Champions Trophy.

Though the International Cricket Council (ICC) has made it clear that the Champions Trophy stays in Pakistan in spite of such security fears, their decision to name Sri Lanka as a back-up venue have only added fuel to speculations that it may be planning to relocate the tournament just months after the ICC Women’s World Cup qualifying event was taken out from Pakistan to South Africa when competing teams raised security issues.

However, PCB officials remain confident that the tournament will go ahead here according to schedule. Nagmi said that arrangements are being made for the successful hosting of the Champions Trophy, international cricket’s second most important tournament after the quadrennial World Cup.

“We are working on improving the infrastructure for the Champions Trophy and are in close contact with the ICC to sort out other details involved in the staging of such a mega event,”

Naghmi said.

An ICC delegation is to arrive in Pakistan today (Thursday) but Naghmi dispelled the impression that the officials will be carrying out a security inspection.

“The ICC officials are coming here to discuss the (tournament) budget and to inspect the venues and other arrangements. Any security inspection is not on their agenda,”

he said.

Naghmi said that the ICC can send its security experts at a later stage.

“But so far nothing has been discussed about such an inspection.”

Defending champions Australia are the top seeds for the Champions Trophy. They are grouped with Pakistan, India and former winners West Indies in Group A. Former champions South Africa and New Zealand, Sri Lanka and England are in Group B. The two top teams in each group after the round robin stage will qualify for the knockout semifinals.

Sri Lanka an alternate venue for Champions Trophy

The ICC has confirmed Sri Lanka will be an alternate venue to host the ICC Champions Trophy in September this year. This decision comes in the wake of Australia postponing their tour to Pakistan on the grounds of security reasons.

If Australia's apprehensions about the security situation in Pakistan don't change in the next few months, the ICC could be faced with a situation where they will have to decide on switching venues. Australia and New Zealand have raised the most concerns, sources said.

"We have named Sri Lanka an alternative venue,"

an ICC spokesperson told Cricinfo.

"As of now, Pakistan will host the tournament and we don't intend to take it away from them."

Sri Lanka last hosted the tournament in 2002 and the ICC expressed satisfaction with regard to all the arrangements and support they received from Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC).

In a new development, the board is likely to be caught in a Catch 22 situation whether to oblige the Pakistan Cricket Board and play a series of three to five ODIs in Pakistan next month, a decision which may upset the Indian board because it will clash with the much anticipated Indian Premier League (IPL) which is due to start on April 18. Several of Sri Lanka's top cricketers have signed for the tournament. If Sri Lanka agree to Pakistan's request, their one-day squad will fly directly from the West Indies to Pakistan.

Meanwhile, the selection committee is due to meet the Cricket Committee headed by former Sri Lankan batsman Aravinda de Silva today to finalise the tour and player contracts for the next 12 months. Among the clauses that are due to be included in the contracts are for players to be accompanied by their wives on tour, and also to make it compulsory for the cricketers to play domestic cricket to be eligible for national selection.

The latter clause could jeopardise the players from signing up to play for English counties and for the IPL, both of which would require sanction from SLC. It is learnt that the Sri Lankan players, currently touring the Caribbean, are not happy with this clause, but highly-placed sources said the Cricket Committee is strongly pressing for its inclusion.

ICC announces groups for September's Champions Trophy

The groups for this September's Champions Trophy in Pakistan have been announced by the ICC, and India, Pakistan and Australia have been seeded together.

Group A comprises of defending champion and top seed Australia along with India, Pakistan and the West Indies while Group B is made up of the winner of the inaugural event, South Africa, as well as New Zealand, Sri Lanka and England.

The groupings were made on the basis of teams' rankings in the ICC ODI Championship table on March 12, the agreed cut-off date.

It was decided in 2005 that from 2008 the tournament would only include the top eight one-day sides exactly six months before the start of the tournament. As a result, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, who are ranked ninth and tenth, miss out.

The two groups will be played on a round-robin format with the top two sides progressing to the semi-finals. The full tournament schedule and information regarding venues will be announced by the ICC in due course.

Group A Australia (1), India (4), Pakistan (5), West Indies (8)
Group B South Africa (2), New Zealand (3), Sri Lanka (6), England (7).