January 22, 2008	Tuesday	Muharram 12, 1429

MELBOURNE, Jan 21: World cricket’s incoming president has urged the Australians to tour Pakistan this year and believes the world champions will be safe despite the recent violence there.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) president-elect David Morgan said it would be “rather sad” if Australia aborted their proposed tour set for March-April to Pakistan as he was confident Ricky Ponting’s team would be safe.

“I believe that the processes are in place and that they will be invoked quite properly, and I would hope that cricketers can be protected and looked after in Pakistan,” he said.

“Pakistan has a great tradition of cricket, they have some very fine cricketers, and it would be rather sad if it turned out that there were good reasons why that tour couldn’t proceed. Zimbabwe are in Pakistan currently and I hope that the level of safety and security will be such that cricket tours to Pakistan can go ahead, as they have done in recent years.”

Australia’s tour was thrown in doubt by the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto last month, which has prompted several outbreaks of violence. Last week, more than 20 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack in Lahore.

Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association plan a visit to Pakistan soon to assess security arrangements in the country.

Australia have not toured Pakistan since 1998, as their 2002 tour was switched to neutral venues of Sri Lanka & Sharjah because of security concerns.

Morgan said the ICC could also send in security consultants to assess the safety of the country before Australia visited.— Agencies