JAIPUR, Sept 23: Australian captain Ricky Ponting has said that the expert security advice his team received halted what could have been a disastrous tour of Pakistan.

A suicide bomber detonated a truck packed with explosives on Saturday in Islamabad, killing about 60 people and injuring 200 at the Marriott Hotel.

“It’s devastating for the people involved in Pakistan. I mean, we’d be talking hypothetically, if us being in the hotel or England or South Africa being in the hotel,” said Ponting while talking to newsmen here on Tuesday.

“I think what we’ve done, and what we’ve done right the way through, is that we just have to listen to the advice from the experts and our Department of Foreign Affairs.

“Security advice right the way through has been (that) they have not been happy for us to tour Pakistan, so obviously nothing has changed right now. It is an absolute shame that things like this continue to happen in Pakistan, because, as players you want to travel all around the world,” Ponting added.—Agencies