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.

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 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.

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.

Pakistan coach Lawson slams Australia postponement

Pakistan cricket coach Geoff Lawson said Australia's decision to call off their tour over security fears on Tuesday was disappointing and unjustified.

Lawson, a former Australia paceman, lashed out after the tour scheduled for March-April was postponed following a double bomb attack in the eastern city of Lahore that killed at least 21 people.

"I don't think they (Australia) are justified in postponing the series. I am living in Pakistan and feel secure,"

Lawson told reporters.

"I am disappointed, although it was expected. It is a shame that we are not playing Australia at a time when they are beatable."

The tour was due to begin on March 29 and Lahore was one of the venues where Australia were due to play.

Lawson said the postponement would have multiple effects on Pakistani cricket.

"There is an immediate disappointment of not having the best team in Pakistan and it's a loss for players, fans, administrators who lose quality cricket,"

he said.

"It may have a major effect in the short term and it's up to the PCB to assure that it will not have a major effect in the longer run,"

he added, referring to the Pakistan Cricket Board.

"I think the Australians should have come here full steam ahead,"

Lawson, who took up his position last August to replace the late Bob Woolmer, told the Australian Associated Press here.

"Bombs do go off. You can't argue with that. But they're focused on particular targets that have nothing to do with sport, and particularly nothing to do with cricket."

Government Advice Prompted Oz To Pull Out

Cricket Australia took the decision to postpone their tour of Pakistan on government advice, according to chief executive James Sutherland.

Sutherland confirmed the one-day world champions would not be travelling to Pakistan for a three-Test series, which was scheduled to start on March 29, due to security concerns.

There have been a number of bomb blasts in Pakistan since the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto - the latest of which occurred in Lahore and is reported to have killed 24 people.

"Ultimately the starting point is to look at the Federal Government's advice to Australian travellers to Pakistan and it's not favourable,"

Sutherland said.

"The question for us was to then have a closer look and say what are the implications for the Australian cricket team given those quite serious warnings that are in place on the DFAT (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) website?"

The Australian players, particularly all-rounder Andrew Symonds, had expressed their concerns about going to Pakistan but Sutherland said this was not a factor in Australia postponing the tour.

"We understand some players may have had feelings about the tour but from Cricket Australia's perspective we had an absolute obligation that we were committed to (going to Pakistan) under the future tours programme and if the safety and security warnings had been sufficient for us to tour then we would have toured."

Cricket Australia (CA) told the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) they were willing to play the series in a third country.

But the PCB instead agreed to postpone the series in the hope it could be re-scheduled in Pakistan at a later date following a week of deliberations.

Australia have not toured Pakistan since 1998 with the three-Test series in 2002 staged at neutral venues in Colombo in Sri Lanka and Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.

Sutherland is hopeful Australia might be able to tour Pakistan in 2009 or 2010 provided the security situation improves in a country which has seen more than 600 people die in suicide attacks this year alone.

"We want the tour to go ahead, we want to play cricket against Pakistan and we want to play ideally in Pakistan but right now it's not appropriate to be playing in Pakistan,"

Sutherland added.

"But that is not to say that at some stage in the not too distant future things won't have settled down and we will be able to play in Pakistan.

"There are a couple of windows in 2009 and 2010 and it might take a little bit of massaging in order to make that happen but that is what we are setting our sights on at the moment."

Sutherland said he could understand the PCB not moving the series to a neutral venue given the 2002 series was played in front of almost empty stadia.

"Playing at a neutral venue was one of the options that was certainly put on the table but at the end of the day that is something for the Pakistan Cricket Board because it's their tour and we certainly sympathise with their position in that they desperately want the tour to go ahead in Pakistan."

The International Cricket Council (ICC) have the power to fine Cricket Australia if it was felt there was insufficient justification for refusing to tour.

But the ICC insist that was not on their agenda.

"No, since it was a mutual decision between the two cricket boards there is no question of the ICC imposing any fines,"

a spokesman told PA Sport.

"It is a joint declaration, it is not a cancellation, it is a postponement.

"Both the boards can mutually postpone a tour.

"It has happened in the past, it is a decision the boards have taken so we support it."

Pakistan cricket chief Nasim Ashraf insisted conditions in the country remained conducive to hosting international sporting events despite Australia's decision to postpone their tour.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ashraf said:

"We maintain conditions are still conducive to hold cricket events in Pakistan.

"Our security plans have also been very good. Teams have toured Pakistan in recent times and have had no problems.

"The Australians have based their decision on their own assessment of the security situation in Pakistan."