SYDNEY, March 3: Australian Cricketers Association (ACA) president Darren Lehmann said on Monday he would not send a delegate on a pre-tour security inspection of Pakistan due to safety concerns.

Cricket Australia and the ACA will meet with foreign ministry officials in Canberra on Wednesday for the latest information on the security situation in Pakistan amid a recent spate of suicide bombings there.

But former Test batsman Lehmann said he would not be allowing any of his employees to go to Pakistan because he did not think it was safe to do so, and because the players’ board have voiced their disapproval.

ACA chief executive Paul Marsh had been scheduled to join Cricket Australia representatives on a mid-March advance trip to Pakistan ahead of Australia’s tour, which is scheduled to begin on March 29.

“We’re not sending Paul Marsh on the pre-tour visit and that’s basically because we as a board don’t feel comfortable sending one of our employees there at the moment,” Lehmann told reporters on Monday.

“At the moment our advice is not to, and I don’t feel comfortable sending anybody to be perfectly honest, and the (players’) board doesn’t.

“There’s been a lot of things going on in Pakistan – hopefully it settles down, but only time will tell.”

Lehmann is convinced CA will push ahead with plans for the tour unless it is made patently clear the trip cannot proceed.

He said he and the players would require plenty of assurances to sway them from their stance.

“On Wednesday we’ll meet with the government departments and see what is really out there,” he said.

“We’ll get our advice from them, security issues, any other problems we have with Pakistan. I think they’d need a lot of assurances along the way.”

CA will meet with officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra on Wednesday to receive advice on the current security situation in Pakistan.

CA’s spokesman Peter Young said it was too early to tell if the latest bombings would affect the tour.

“We will sit down with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and take a formal briefing from them on the situation in Pakistan and the likely situation in the coming weeks,: Young said. “We’ll continue to move through that formal process.

“We’re not going to pre-empt the outcome of that process until we have gone through the whole thing.”—Agencies