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| July 7, 2005 | Thursday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 29, 1426 |
Imran backs ECB’s decision not to play in Karachi
KARACHI, July 6: Pakistan cricket legend Imran Khan said on Wednesday that England’s refusal to play a Test in Karachi this winter was justified. England said Tuesday they would not play a Test in the violence-prone city, but agreed to play a One-day International there and will decide in 10 days’ time whether to play a second game as well.
“Until and unless the law and order situation was restored such things will happen,” the former Pakistan captain said.
“When England’s security team was in Karachi the city mayor was quoted in newspaper as saying that local elections next months will see bloodshed and everyone took notice of it,” said Imran.
“You can’t blame the Pakistan Cricket Board because in such a situation if they press for a Test in Karachi the whole tour might get jeopardised.”
However cricket officials in Karachi vowed to protest the decision and hit out at the PCB for failing to argue the case for the country’s largest city.
“England’s refusal to play a Test in Karachi is disappointing and we would protest over it,” the Karachi City Cricket Association secretary Sirajul Islam Bukhari said.
“The PCB has failed to plead the case of Karachi,” Bukhari added.
“Karachi is a safe place and in a population of 15 million one or two incidents are common. Colombo in Sri Lanka staged international matches when there was unrest, so why not Karachi?”
Bukhari said Karachi staged the 1996 World Cup successfully even though there was a curfew in some parts of the city.
The three Tests proposed for the tour are now likely to take place in Lahore, Faisalabad and Multan while Lahore will also stage two One-day Internationals.
If England play only one limited overs match in Karachi, then Rawalpindi will stage two.
Two British security experts spent last week assessing security at various grounds in Pakistan, and two senior English cricket officials visited this week.
Meanwhile, England’s decision was due partly to security concerns for the team’s “Barmy Army” travelling fans, a PCB official said.
“They told us they were reluctant to play in Karachi as they had safety concerns not only for their players but also for their supporters,” the official said.
The official, who declined to be identified, said ECB officials were expecting many England supporters to travel to Pakistan for their team’s tour.—Agencies
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