Aussie cricket tour of Pakistan?

Pakistan cricket tour postponed over security fears
Posted 3 hours 3 minutes ago
Updated 24 minutes ago


Cricket Australia (CA) has confirmed Australia's tour of Pakistan has been postponed due to security fears.

CEO James Sutherland announced the decision at a media conference in Melbourne this afternoon.

"For us the safety and security of our employees comes first and we've been left with no alternative but to arrive at this position," he said.

"We've left no stone unturned, we wanted to play this tour and really the only consideration that we could have was to ensure that safety and security was there and to tour, and unfortunately we weren't able to arrive at that level of comfort."

"Together with the PCB we've been able to come to a solution that works for everyone."

Sutherland said the decision to postpone was made with the hope of touring at another time.

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

"There are a couple of windows in 2009 and 2010, there might be a little bit of massaging in order to make that happen... but I guess that's where we are setting our sights at the moment."

Sutherland played coy over questions the tour had been postponed and not cancelled due to threat of a sanction from the International Cricket Council (ICC).

"There is a process that is in place under ICC regulations and we've done everthing in accordance with those regulations to ensure the best possible outcome for everyone," he said.

Under ICC rules, Australia would have had to provide a strong case for pulling out of the tour or risk a fine of more than $2 million for failing to meet its obligations.

Security threat

The tour, which was due to begin on March 29, looked unlikely to continue even after both the Australian Cricket Board and the PCB arranged for a shortened tour of three Tests and five one-day internationals.

Recent conflict in Pakistan including a bomb blast in Lahore which killed at least 20 people this afternoon, looks to have forced CA's hand.... etc

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Darryl Hair calls on video referee to decide coin toss
Sunday, 04 February 2001

Darryl Hair - see no evil.

[Edition 33] PERTH, Sunday: The controversy over the use of video umpiring in cricket reached a new peak today when umpire Darryl Hair called on the third umpire to decide who won the toss in the One Day International. Umpire Hair was the on-field official in charge of the pre-match coin toss between Steve Waugh and Jimmy Adams to decide which order the West Indies would lose in.

The coin toss is usually an uneventful affair but it was marred when Umpire Hair claimed he could not tell who had won. Hair, who was standing beside the two captains, said an erratic toss by Adams meant he was too far away from the incident to make a call with the naked eye. Hair then refused to accept Adams' claim that he had won the toss, telling the captains that "there are always two sides to each coin toss".


.........Umpire Hair's call for the third umpire became even more astounding however when he later relied only on his own eye in reporting West Indies Captain Jimmy Adams for allegedly "chucking" the 20c coin in the toss.

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Islamabad carnage vindicates cricket boycott
Posted 8 hours 37 minutes ago

Cricket Australia's decision to boycott the Champions Trophy appears to have been vindicated following a bomb blast in Islamabad which killed at least 40 people.

A suicide bomber detonated a truck packed with explosives at the Marriott Hotel in a brazen attack in the heart of the Pakistan capital.

Around 200 people were wounded, some critically, and there were fears more dead would be found in the fiery wreckage of the hotel, a popular gathering place for politicians, foreigners and the Pakistan elite.

Australia's cricketers were scheduled to play in Pakistan at the time of the blast, but the Champions Trophy was postponed because of security fears.

The tournament was to begin on September 12 and finish next weekend.

But the International Cricket Council (ICC) was forced to postpone the tournament until next year after several countries, including Australia and South Africa, refused to attend.

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