LAHORE, Nov 21: The second Saarc Gold Cup Cycling championship which was scheduled to be held at New Delhi, India from Dec 3 to 8 has been deferred till February next year.

Pakistan Cycling Federation (PCF) secretary Khawaja Idrees Haider said Wednesday that his Indian counterpart Jagvir Singh informed him that the decision was taken in the wake of security reason due to the situation in Afghanistan.

The PCF secretary said that the national training camp which was in progress at Lahore, however, would continue to prepare cyclists for this championship.

A total 17-member contingent of Pakistan including eight male and two female cyclists and seven officials were to take part in the championship.

He said that the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) had granted permission for the Indian tour, but he objected to the policy of the board of demanding surety bond of Rs one million from the parents of each player in order to prevent them from escaping during the tour.

The PCF official suggested that such surety must be confined to the visits of USA, United Kingdom, Japan and other rich countries where such incidents had happened. He said that it was a hard task for poor players of this game to fulfil this requirement of the policy.