HYDERABAD, Jan 24: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Dr Nasim Ashraf on Thursday ruled out the possibility of Pakistan playing Australia either on neutral venue or Down Under this spring in case the world champions pulled out of the impending tour due to security fears.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the second One-day International between Pakistan and Zimbabwe here at the Niaz Stadium, the board chairman said: “I want to make it clear that there is no possibility of our team going to Australia. The Pakistan Cricket Board has only one stance on this issue, and that is Australia will play in Pakistan as per commitment in March and April 2008.”

The Sydney Morning Herald on Wednesday had quoted an unnamed PCB official saying that there was a possibility of Pakistan swapping tours with Australia this year to play Down Under in exchange of a home series in Nov 2009 here.

But the PCB chief dismissed the report as baseless. “What surprises me that even Cricket Australia has mentioned nothing of this sort to us. I am astonished that anything on those lines has been mentioned by our board in the Australian media,” he stated before adding the series won’t be played at neutral venue either.

“There is no question of playing at a neutral venue whatsoever and there is no question of us going to Australia at this time. We are scheduled to tour Australia in 2009 and we will keep our commitment and we expect them to do the same as well,” he added.

According to the ICC’s Future Test Programme (FTP), Australia are scheduled to tour Pakistan, their first visit to this part of the world in more than nine years, while the Pakistanis are slated to play Down Under in the 2009-10 season.

But Ricky Ponting’s men as the Cricket Australia have expressed their reservations over the tour with some of their players having already indicated they would stay home rather than play in Pakistan if the trip went ahead as planned. The much-awaited series is under threat because of the security situation in Pakistan following the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on Dec 27 and the general elections, which is now due to be held on Feb 18 after being postponed from Jan 8.

The PCB chief disclosed that he would be visiting Dubai shortly to attend a meeting of the International Cricket Council (ICC) where he would meet his Australian counterpart, Creagh O’Connor to finalise the itinerary. “I will be there [in Dubai] for a meeting of the scrutiny committee which has to select a new chief executive of the ICC. And I will meet with the chairman of Cricket Australia to sort things out.”

Cricket Australia has still not agreed on an itinerary with the PCB but the Australians have pledged to send a delegation to Pakistan after the Feb 18 elections to review the security situation.