October 20, 2007	Saturday	Shawwal 7, 1428

LAHORE, Oct 19: Pakistan and South Africa cricket officials on Friday announced that the ongoing tour of the Proteas will continue as per schedule, and accordingly the last One-day match of the tour will be held in Karachi on Oct 29.

It was feared that tour may be cancelled in the wake of the severe bomb blasts in Karachi on Thursday, which killed around 138 persons besides injuring hundreds.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Director Cricket Operations, Zakir Khan with South African Cricket Board vice-president Logel Nido announced the decision at a joint press conference at the Gaddafi Stadium, where the second ODI of five-match series will be played on Saturday.

“After the sad incident in Karachi, we received some security concerns from the South African team management on Friday morning.

‘‘The chief operating officer, Shafqat Naghmi and I first held a meeting with South African team management and later in the afternoon a high level meeting was arranged with the high officials of the Punjab government. As the provincial government assured the highest level of security, the tour is on without any change in the schedule of the remaining matches,” Zakir said.

Asked, since the Punjab government gave the assurance about the matches to be held in its jurisdiction, what would happen about the Karachi ODI, Zakir said a high level meeting was also being held in Islamabad on Saturday, which would take a decision about this issue.

However, he dispelled the impression that Islamabad’s meeting could change the schedule of the matches.

According to the schedule, the first one-dayer had been played in Lahore which will also hold the second on Saturday.

The third and fourth matches will be played in Faisalabad (Oct 23) and Multan (Oct 26), while the last one in Karachi on Oct 29.

Zakir said South Africa did not make any demand to increase the security but it was the provincial government itself which took the decision of increasing the level of security.

Logel, who first condemned the killing of innocent people in Karachi, said that it was a terrible incident and indeed South Africa had some concerns about the security.

But as the PCB made sincere efforts in arranging a high level meeting with the provincial government, which had very kindly increased the level of security, the tour would go on as per schedule and South Africa would play in Karachi, too.

To a question Logel said obviously the players were worried and the people back home also had concerns after the incident, because it was an unusual situation.

But he added, South Africans were prepared for such an eventuality as they knew about the political situation before coming here.

However, he said South Africans would continue to watch the situation day by day before taking any further decision.

Chairman of PCB Dr Nasim Ashraf said that the South African team management have sought the board’s advice whether to continue the tour after the horrifying bomb blasts.

Talking to reporters, before the officials of two cricket boards held a press conference, the chairman said that the visitors expressed security concerns and sought the PCB advice for continuing the tour.

The PCB, he said, had tried to convince them that there would not be any problem, since the incident in Karachi had no link with their security.

He said the tour would continue and there would be no change in the schedule of matches.