KARACHI, Aug 4 Imran Khan, the former Pakistan captain, has blamed the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for mishandling the itinerary of England’s tour this year. Imran said on Thursday that the PCB had itself given England the option of playing a Test or one-dayer in Karachi.

England, after rejecting a proposal to play a Test for security reasons, will play just a one-dayer in Karachi on their tour from Oct 26.

“The board should never have offered England the choice of playing a Test or one-dayer in Karachi,” said Imran, who played 88 Tests and 175 one-dayers.

“They should have insisted on having a Test in Karachi and not wavered from their stand especially after the bomb blasts in London,” he added. The 52-year old, who joined politics after his retirement from cricket and is now a member of parliament, came in for severe criticism last month when he supported England’s decision not to play in Karachi.

But in an apparent U-turn he said that England needed to review their decision of not playing in Karachi as touring teams could not continue to pick and choose venues.

“There are security concerns everywhere in the world given the prevailing circumstances. England must keep this in mind,” Imran said.—Reuters

Our Sports Correspondent adds from Lahore: Former captain and coach Intikhab Alam said that it was that it was unfortunate that England had opted to deprived the people of Karachi from watching them in Karachi.

Intikhab noted that the past PCB’s decisions of shifting the home series against Australia and West Indies to neutral venues in 2002 because of security apprehensions had damaged Pakistan cricket, while adding it had now become a trend of foreign teams picking and rejecting venues in Pakistan. Intikhab revealed that the Indian Punjab Cricket Association had extended his coaching contract for another one year.