Australia postpone Pakistan tour : Tour unlikely until at least 2009

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Doubts over security delegation to Pakistan Australia's tour of Pakistan may have hit another roadblock with reports the Australian Cricketers' Association (ACA) is refusing to send a representative to assess the security situation. More... Australian Cricketers' Association may not go Doubts over security delegation to Pakistan Cricinfo staff March 3, 2008 Australia's tour of Pakistan may have hit another roadblock with reports the Australian Cricketers' Association (ACA) is refusing to send a representative to assess the security situation. Cricket Australia is planning to dispatch a delegation to Pakistan this month to decide if its players can visit safely. However, the Australian reported the ACA had declined to send somebody from its organisation. Australia's scheduled tour has already been shortened and, if it goes ahead, will begin later this month, but further bombings in Pakistan over the weekend have heightened safety fears. Cricket Australia 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. The ACA said it would be part of the meeting but would not confirm if it had pulled out of the security delegation. "We will go to Canberra with Cricket Australia on Wednesday to get the latest security briefing," Paul Marsh, the ACA chief executive, told the Australian. Cricket Australia'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."

[Kartikey]

Even Lawson criticises the Aussies http://www.smh.com.au/news/cricket/livid-lawson-loses-patience-with-australia/2008/03/03/1204402364984.html PAKISTAN coach Geoff Lawson is furious at what he regards as ill-informed comments from Australian cricketers and is bracing for Cricket Australia to withdraw from its Test and one-day tour, scheduled to begin later this month. "The PCB seems to be pretty negative about [Australia's tour progressing], only because the correspondence they've been receiving from Cricket Australia has been negative," Lawson told the Herald from Lahore yesterday. "Pretty much everything they've heard from CA has been a hedging of bets in case they decide not to come. The PCB have been pretty disappointed by the comments. Everyone here knows there would be no problem with the tour, yet the more likely scenario seems to be that it won't happen." Lawson predicted an Australian withdrawal from the tour of Pakistan would have consequences far beyond the abandonment of a few cricket matches, potentially jeopardising the future of Pakistani cricket and turning global sentiment against Ricky Ponting's side. The damage to Australia's reputation would be exacerbated, Lawson believes, if players joined the lucrative Indian Premier League during the period they were due to tour Pakistan. "It would be a terrific coincidence," Lawson said. "You would like to think that wouldn't be what it was about, but the amounts of money being talked about are massive. To a certain degree, it's pretty embarrassing to be over here and hearing some of the stuff being said. When people here read what [Andrew] Symonds has had to say about touring Pakistan, there is a lot of shaking of the head. There is no knowledge behind those comments. "Australian players don't realise how important the game is to other countries. They carry on like pork chops about nothing, but don't realise the impact it has elsewhere. It's ridiculous. This decision is far bigger than just the fate of a few matches. "It's not just a couple of Tests or TV revenue. It's the precedent it would set. It would give everybody an out from coming here because 'that's what Australia did'. It would be a massive blow to the general public, too. If Australia doesn't come, it could lead to Pakistan being ostracised from world cricket." Though many within Australian cricket have been quick to point to recent suicide bombings in Pakistan as proof of the country's instability, the majority of attacks have been carried out in Pakistan's north west, far removed from the proposed venues for Australia's tour. The bombings at the weekend, which claimed the lives of more than 80 people, were confined to the north-west and targeted police, security personnel and a group of tribal members meeting to discuss increased Taliban activity in the area. Cricket Australia will meet with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade tomorrow to discuss whether it is safe to send a security inspection delegation to Pakistan. Already, the Australian Cricketers' Association yesterday is refusing to attend the proposed inspections tour, and several players have spoken publicly of their safety concerns and preference not to tour. Lawson, though, is adamant the Australians have little to fear. "Since the last security inspection, we've had Australia A, South Africa and Zimbabwe tour," he said. "I'm not sure what difference they'll see this time. Sport transcends politics here. Sportspeople haven't been targeted, and if they were, I think it would be the end of terrorism. People here would not stand for that. "I have been in Karachi for the last few days and it has been very quiet. It just had me thinking, 'How could you not come and play here?' It was far more dangerous when we went there in the 1980s when the Soviets invaded next door [in Afghanistan]. There were tanks rolling through the cities then." Lawson also predicted that an Australian withdrawal from Pakistan would further damage the image of a team yet to recover from the highly controversial Indian series. "There is disaffection with the way the Australians behave, or at least the four or so of them who seem to ruin it for everybody," he said. "There is great respect for the Australians' ability on the field, but bugger all respect for the way they play the game." Im guessing he's talking about Punter, Symmo, Hayden and Clarke.

[Lurker]

Lawson should know. He was widely acknowleged as one of the leading sledgers of his time. Still credit to the man he never got caught in any nasty controversy. The current lot, both Indians and Aussies, and certainly the Aussies, can learn or two from him.

[sachin_fan]

I hope things in pakistan improve for crickets sake..

[Desi Cartman]

Geoff Lawson on Aus (not) touring Pak I think Geoff didnt agree with India when they said that Aussies were losing respect with the way they played the SCG test but now ......... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lawson also predicted that an Australian withdrawal from Pakistan would further damage the image of a team yet to recover from the highly controversial Indian series. "There is disaffection generally with the way the Australians behave. There is great respect for their ability … but bugger all respect for the way they play the game." "When people here read what (Andrew) Symonds has had to say about touring Pakistan, there is a lot of shaking of the head. There is no knowledge behind those comments whatsoever. The damage to Australia's reputation would be worsened, Lawson believes, if players joined the lucrative Indian Premier League during the period they were due to tour Pakistan. "It would be a terrific coincidence," Lawson said. "You would like to think that wouldn't be what it was about, but the amounts of money being talked about are massive. To a certain degree, it's pretty embarrassing to be over here and hearing some of the stuff being said. Article

[Sachinism]

http://indiancricketfans.com/showthread.php?t=93305

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Australia postpone Pakistan tour : Tour unlikely until at least 2009 Australia have confirmed they will not go ahead with their tour of Pakistan later this month. More... Series unlikely until at least 2009 Australia postpone Pakistan tour Cricinfo staff March 11, 2008 James Sutherland: "The safety and security of our employees must come first" © Getty Images Australia have confirmed that they will not go ahead with their scheduled tour of Pakistan later this month due to security concerns. The series has not officially been cancelled but rather postponed, however it is unlikely to be played this year. "We are very sorry that the tour could not take place at this time," Creagh O'Connor, Cricket Australia's chairman, said. "This was a difficult decision based on independent review of the circumstances prevailing in Pakistan at the moment. We wish no loss to Pakistan Cricket Board and look forward to undertaking this tour in the near future." O'Connor and Nasim Ashraf, the chairman of the PCB, will meet in Dubai next weekend in an attempt to determine possible dates for the deferred tour. "We are obviously very disappointed at this decision," Ashraf said. "I guess there is not much we could do and sincerely hope that the tour of Australia to Pakistan can materialise at the earliest opportunity." James Sutherland, the chief executive of Cricket Australia, said Australia's busy programme meant it would not be easy to find a spot to reschedule the series. "There's a couple of windows in 2009 and 2010," Sutherland said. "There might be a little bit of massaging in order to make that happen but I guess that's what we're setting our sights on at the moment. The way our programme is at the moment, for Australian players, it's probably unlikely [we can play sooner]." In recent weeks it had become increasingly unlikely that Australia would go ahead with the tour as some players were reportedly unwilling to go due to concerns about ongoing violence in the country. However, Sutherland said neither the opinion of the players nor the latest bombings - at least 15 people were killed in suicide attacks in Lahore on Tuesday, less than two hours before the announcement - had influenced the decision. "We drew some conclusions from our discussions with the government and other advisers last week that saw us in a position of really seeing that there wouldn't be any other alternative," he said. "We raised that matter with the Pakistan Cricket Board at the end of last week and left them to consider the implications of that over the weekend. "We're very disappointed that this tour won't be going ahead. We've left no stone unturned in trying to ensure that the tour could proceed as planned but at the end of the day for us the safety and security of our employees must come first and we've been left with no alternative." Cricket Australia was briefed by the Australian government last week, however Sutherland said the recommendations of independent advisers had also been taken into consideration. "The starting point is to look at the federal government's advice to Australian travelers to Pakistan and it's not favourable," he said. "The question for us is then to have a closer look and say, what are the implications for an Australian cricket team given those quite serious warnings that are in place."

[King Tendulkar]

Cant blame them. Pak is a dangerous country!

[Laaloo]

Not SO Breaking NEWS!! Australia "postpone" Pakistan tour http://content-www.cricinfo.com/pakvaus/content/current/story/341954.html in the meantime Bangladesh agree to tour Pakistan PCB has invited Bangladesh to take part in a 5-match ODI Series and a Twenty20 International in April.

[Guest Hiten.]

:hysterical: Victory lap in sight for pakistan :haha:

[Dravid]

and if no bombs explode for once..maybe even a bus ride through the streets :hahaha:

[Ram]

So finally, the tour has been called off. I suppose it was only expected. If PCB or the Pakistan govt seem disappointed at this, then they acting brilliantly, coz they must have known all along that the tour wouldnt have gone ahead in the first place. They did all they could, through the media and by organizing the Zim series to show that the Australian cricketers will be safe and to an extent they were right. The Aussie squad was assured security on par with visiting head of states, which would mean private chartered flights, 24 hour dedicated commando security, the entire floor of the hotel in which the players would have been statying would have been cordoned off, all routes blocked off when the Aussie team travels from the airport to the hotel, or from the hotel to the stadium and jammers fixed in all the convoy vehicles to prevent IED blasts. Every Australian player would have been given a dedicated elite guard, armed with an automatic rifle. Therefore, it is inconceivable to think the terrorists would have been able to penetrate this multiple layer of security and create some sort of damage. Stiil, none of these assurances were enough. But I have to admit, CA played its cards brilliantly. All along, they kept saying to the media that the tour was on, pending an independent security clearance, but privately, they must have been hoping the security situation in Pakistan deteriorates drastically enough, so that they have enough excuses to cancel the tour. While PCB tried to play the innocent victim and protective host, CA played the generous guest role to perfection. They cleverly postponed the tour, not in the hope that the security situation improves, but something terrible happens so that they can cancel the tour and still look good. And that is exactly what they got, in the form twin bomb blasts, this time in Lahore. Now, CA looks vindicated in its decision and PCB is left searching for ideas. Though, its very rare for the Muslim fundamentalists to attack visiting cricketers. There is generally some method in their madness and they tend to restrict their targets to security forces and govt installations. Even at the height of insurgency in J&K, there were hardly any instances of tourists being attacked by terrorists. Still, there was a threat, it was real and its difficult to see a cricket tour happening under such circumstances. In a way, it was poetic justice for Pakistan. At a time when their country is in turmoil and on the brink, they shouldnt have even planned a cricket tour to begin with. But now, this tour cancellation will be headline news in all channels. It is the worst PR signal that could possibly go out to the rest of the world. If an international cricket team, assured of fool-proof security, doesnt deem it safe enough to tour Pakistan, imagine what kind of message it would send to normal tourists and business people. This is not merely about cricket and the futures tour program, a lot was at stake here. There would have been intense behind the scenes diplomatic activity between both the foreign offices. Unfortunately for Pakistan, it wasnt enough. Now that the decision has been finally declared, Pakistan should first try to control the internal situation in its country. At a time when bombs are going off and people are dying, imagine the strain it would have placed on the govt, having to provide security to a visiting cricket team. In a way, this is good news for Pakistan. They have more important matters to handle, other than a trivial cricket series that happens once in a while.

[Mr. Wicket]

But I have to admit' date=' CA played its cards brilliantly. All along, they kept saying to the media that the tour was on, pending an independent security clearance, but privately, they must have been hoping the security situation in Pakistan deteriorates drastically enough, so that they have enough excuses to cancel the tour. While PCB tried to play the innocent victim and protective host, CA played the generous guest role to perfection. They cleverly postponed the tour, not in the hope that the security situation improves, but something terrible happens so that they can cancel the tour and still look good. And that is exactly what they got, in the form twin bomb blasts, this time in Lahore. Now, CA looks vindicated in its decision and PCB is left searching for ideas.[/quote'] Oh yes. Whatever you can say about CA, they have some slick characters in the offices. I was listening to James Sutherland being interviewed by ABC Radio this weekend on Grandstand, and it was a superb exhibition of stonewalling that would have made Boycott proud. A number of tough questions (including a blatant 'Rate this summer on a 1-10 scale'), which he mostly sidestepped or deflected very smartly.

Though, its very rare for the Muslim fundamentalists to attack visiting cricketers. There is generally some method in their madness and they tend to restrict their targets to security forces and govt installations. Even at the height of insurgency in J&K, there were hardly any instances of tourists being attacked by terrorists. Still, there was a threat, it was real and its difficult to see a cricket tour happening under such circumstances.

They don't make outright attacks on tourists/sportsmen, but there's always the chance an attack could conceivably happen where a cricketer is - even if the intent was not to target him. And there've been a fair number of these recently. Twin suicide blasts just today killing 24, and in situations like that, you fear anyone could have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Not a risk worth taking, and I can't blame CA. Heck - just go to Google News, type in 'pakistan' and 'bomb' and see the number of reports that have appeared in the last 4 weeks on various bombings/attacks. Let Pakistan worry about getting their affairs in order first.

[Lurker]

Now that the decision has been finally declared' date=' Pakistan should first try to control the internal situation in its country. At a time when bombs are going off and people are dying, imagine the strain it would have placed on the govt, having to provide security to a visiting cricket team. In a way, this is good news for Pakistan. They have more important matters to handle, other than a trivial cricket series that happens once in a while.[/quote'] First up I have to give you props for still contributing meaningfully in each thread. I say it since we seem to be overrun by a bunch of loonies who excel in writing an entire response in 6 words. Okay rant out of the way now. I personally disagree with Australia's plan not to tour Pakistan. Cricket, quite simply, is the biggest sports in Pakistan and it is one of those few things that brings a nation together. Okay I am not ignoring the security issues and all that but I am also quite sure that Pakistan can handle security, specially in a curtailed series. What would actually happen is that this move will pi$$ off Pakistanis, specially the right wingers who shall say " Look you just can beleive these Western ******". xx

[Mr. Wicket]

First up I have to give you props for still contributing meaningfully in each thread. I say it since we seem to be overrun by a bunch of loonies who excel in writing an entire response in 6 words.

A gross generalization there, Lurks. The loonies who write responses in 6 smilies and no words will feel left out.

[Lurker]

A gross generalization there, Lurks. The loonies who write responses in 6 smilies and no words will feel left out.

:hysterical::hysterical: For a moment you had me going as if I had been judgemental, which to be honest I was for a second. Good comeback there :cantstop:

[Ram]

PCB should stop trying to arrange alternate tours, just to show the whole world cricket can still happen in Pakistan. I am pretty much certain that had the Aussies decided to go ahead with the tour, nothing terribly untoward would have happened, but still, cricket shouldnt be Pakistan's priority right now. And the decision to invite B'desh for a 5 match ODI series is PCB's way of getting back to CA and telling them " Now watch as we organize a totally peaceful tour and show the whole world how you were wrong in canceling the tour"...

[Mr. Wicket]

My concern is the security measurements Australia would have received will probably not be the sort that the Bangles receive. Pakistan will not bend over backwards and lay the red carpet out for them, and if anything of concern does happen during that tour, it could do tremendous damage to Pakistani cricket.

[Ram]

Oh yes. Whatever you can say about CA, they have some slick characters in the offices. I was listening to James Sutherland being interviewed by ABC Radio this weekend on Grandstand, and it was a superb exhibition of stonewalling that would have made Boycott proud. A number of tough questions (including a blatant 'Rate this summer on a 1-10 scale'), which he mostly sidestepped or deflected very smartly.

On the contrary, they have been comprehensively outmaneuvered by the Indian counterparts in the last 3 months. Whether it be the Mokey issue, or allegations of Aussie cricketers playing in an unsportsmanlike manner in Sydney, or the IPL related mess, BCCI has literally bullied CA into submission. But yes, They have handled the Pakistan tour in the best possible manner, with least damage to their image.

[Ram]

My concern is the security measurements Australia would have received will probably not be the sort that the Bangles receive. Pakistan will not bend over backwards and lay the red carpet out for them' date=' and if anything of concern does happen during that tour, it could do tremendous damage to Pakistani cricket.[/quote'] Yup, that is the other outstanding concern. If something DOES happen, that will cause irreparable damage. Casualties among sports athletes always hog international attention. This is a lose-lose situation for Pakistan.