August 21, 2008	Thursday	Sha'aban 18, 1429

MUMBAI, Aug 20: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Wednesday could not reach a final decison regarding holding of the Champions Trophy in Pakistan and the matter has now been referred to the Board members again.

According to the sources in the ICC, President David Morgan and vice-president Sharad Pawar along with ICC officials — CEO Haroon Lorgat and General Manager Cricket David Richardson — met and discussed the sensitive issue for a few hours.

The ICC has also invited PCB’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Shafqat Naghmi for discussion, it was learnt.

The high profile meeting on Wednesday failed to come to a conclusion. David Morgan is believed to have brought the message from Cricket Australia’s chairman Creag O’Conor and CEO James Sutherland from Beijing where they discussed about the possibilities of not sending the Aussie team to the event in Pakistan.

“The matter will again be discussed in the Board meeting via teleconference soon after deciding the availability of the members and a final decision will be taken thereafter,” the source added.

Cricket Australia on Wednesday denied reports that it had pulled out of the Champions Trophy in Pakistan, saying it was still waiting for a final word from the International Cricket Council (ICC) before taking any decision.

Meanwhile, Cricket Australia spokesman Peter Young said reports suggesting that Australia had pulled out were not true. “No that is not true. We have not pulled out of the Champions Trophy. But we have advised the ICC about our considerable concern. And we have made sure that they understand that we will not go anywhere which is not safe... we are waiting to hear from them later this evening,” Young said.

Asked about reports that Australian Players Association had told its cricketers not to tour Pakistan, Young said it was true that the ACA had been reported as advising its players to not tour. “CA at this stage hasn’t made any official decision to not tour. We are waiting to hear from ICC. The ball is in their court,” he said.

Asked what would be the CA’s line of action if the ICC decides to stay with Pakistan as hosts of the Champions Trophy, Young said if the ICC decide not to relocate, CA will then meet to decide whether they can send a team or not.

“We are very willing to tour Pakistan. We are very keen to do so and we will visit Pakistan as long as the safety and security advisors say that it is safe.”

He also said the sudden resignation of Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Nasim Ashraf has not changed the scenario. “The only issue that is important for us is the safety and security of the players and the advice we get from our range of sources,” he said.

Australian Cricketers’ Association rejected suggestions that it ignored a comprehensive report on security situation in Pakistan when making its decision to advise Australia’s players not to tour.

Marsh said the organisation relied heavily on an assessment from Australian security expert Reg Dickason, who visited Pakistan briefly in June.

But Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) believes a more detailed and more positive report was supplied by Nicholls Steyn & Associates, security firm engaged by ICC, who investigated the situation in Pakistan for months. Pakistan are concerned ACA made its decision without taking enough note of that analysis, a claim that Marsh denied.

“Without getting into specific details of Nicholls-Steyn report, if you were to read that you’d probably share our concerns,” Marsh said. “From a player’s perspective we need to be absolutely sure if we’re recommending that players go into environment like this that we need to be comfortable that they’re going to be safe, and reading that report we couldn’t be.”

However, Marsh conceded Dickason’s advice played large part in ACA’s decision to recommend Australian players do not visit Pakistan for next month’s Champions Trophy.

“We’ve relied on Reg’s recommendations for 12 years,” Marsh said. “Reg has never let us down, so, yes, we put a lot of faith in what he has to say. Our job is to assess whether it’s safe for players to go. We’ve done that and we do that through independent sources, it’s not as though we just read newspaper and make decision.”—Agencies