SYDNEY, March 10: Cricket Australia (CA) should make a decision by the end of the week whether they will proceed with their tour of Pakistan, a spokesman for the governing body in Australia said on Monday.
CA chairman Creagh O’Connor and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Dr Nasim Ashraf are expected to discuss the tour over the telephone later in the week.
Australia’s cricketers have expressed concerns about the security situation in Pakistan after a series of suicide bombings following the general election, which had been postponed by the assassination of opposition leader and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto late last year.
“The next step will be the phone conversation — we are waiting for that to take place,” CA spokesman Peter Young told the Australian Associated Press on Monday.
“Clearly the clock is ticking and there is a sense of expectation where we will reach a point certainly no later than this week on working out exactly what is happening.”
The Australian Cricketers Association (ACA) cancelled their planned inspection of the country last week after they deemed it too dangerous to travel there.
The PCB have already reduced the tour, which is scheduled to begin on March 29, to a month and promised unprecedented security for the Australian team.
The possibility of a neutral venue had also been mooted, though the PCB officials have said they are not keen on moving the tour outside of Pakistan because of its long-term impact on cricket in the country.
The Australian team has not played in Pakistan for a decade. In 2002 a series that was scheduled for Pakistan was shifted to Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates.
CA and ACA officials met with Australia’s foreign ministry in Canberra last week to get the latest updates on the situation inside Pakistan before making their tour decision.—Agencies
Our Sports Reporter adds from Lahore: The PCB is expected to receive CA’s official intimation on Tuesday about the fate of their national squad’s tour to Pakistan.
“We did our best to try to contact CA but to no avail and now hopefully a final decision will be announced by Tuesday,” Dr Nasim told reporters on Monday.
He added that though time was running out with just 19 days left for the tour to begin as per schedule, the PCB was fully prepared to host the Australians.
“We have made all preparations for the tour and after receiving their (Australians’) nod every thing will be ready in order to hold the series in a befitting manner,” he expressed.
However, if the Australians declined to tour, the PCB chief added, the board would seek every possible alternative.
A recent report said that though CA had not informed the PCB about the tour’s cancellation in written, they had abandoned it verbally.
It has been learnt that if the PCB had agreed to play the series on a neutral venue, Pakistan’s chances of staging two multi-nation events — the Asia Cup (June-July) and ICC Champions Trophy (September), might have dwindled.
Moreover, the PCB chairman said though the dates of the Australians’ tour were clashing with the start of IPL, which begins from April 18, the Pakistan players had been exempted from the league till April 29 due to the national duty.
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