August 28, 2008	Thursday	Sha'aban 25, 1429

LAHORE, Aug 27: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) suffered huge financial losses after jointly deciding with Cricket Australia (CA) to postpone their last April’s tour to Pakistan on security grounds, instead of cancelling it.

Well-informed sources told Dawn that the PCB had insured the tour with a leading England-based company but it could only get its claim in case of cancellation of the tour and not for the postponement.

Surprisingly, however, when the PCB failed to convince Australia to tour Pakistan, it insisted that both the organisations issue a joint statement announcing the deferment of the tour till 2009, after Australia.

Sources said interestingly the PCB took the decision of postponement, despite the fact it could get a claim from the insurance company in case of cancellation.

The team from Down Under was to visit Pakistan in April 2008 to play three Tests and five One-day Internationals, but later, the visitors raised security concerns and both the cricket boards with mutual understanding deferred it till next year.

It was decided that the series will be played in two parts, with Test series to be held in April 2009 and the ODIs in September.

At the time of series insurance, many critics had expressed their surprise as to how a leading company could agree to put its money at stake for such an uncertain tour.

Sources said though no record of insurance came before public at any time since the deal was announced, the amount of claim could be around Rs 58 million.