LAHORE, Oct 15: India Under-19 and Sri Lanka Under-19 have cancelled their tours to Pakistan because of current political uncertainty.

Pakistan coach Mudassar Nazar said after the postponement of the tours, the cricket board was planning to get a tour to Australia for the ‘A’ team. He said if Australian Cricket Board (ACB) accepted Pakistan’s request, the tour might be made as early as this year.

India and Sri Lanka had agreed to send teams to Pakistan as preparatory tours for next year’s Youth World Cup scheduled for New Zealand in January-February. Both the teams were slated to play five limited-overs games.

New Zealand had earlier returned from Singapore following Sept 11 terrorist attacks on United States. Sri Lanka’s proposed tour for three-game one-day series this month also failed to materialize as situation escalated following US-led air strikes on Afghanistan.

Mudassar, commenting on his team, felt that the senior players in the current squad were capable of representing the country in the 2003 World Cup.

The former Test all-rounder also believed that a long-term planning was beneficial for any team as it can be built systematically keeping in view the present and future challenges.

He called for a full-time coach.

Mudassar, also a chief coach of the National Cricket Academy, said he was unsure if the Pakistan cricket Board (PCB) would extend his contract which expires in January.

CAMP STARTS: Except Abdur Razzaq, Rashid Latif and Navid Latif, the other 12 members of Pakistan team attended the first day proceedings of the nine-day training camp which started at the Gaddafi Stadium Monday to prepare the team for the Sharjah Cup to be held from Oct 26 to Nov 4.