The sudden and unexpected cancellation is in response to an explosion on the 10th floor of a multi-storeyed commercial building on Friday night on the busy Sharea Faisal.
Karachi Police officials ruled out terrorism in the blast, in which luckily no one was either injured or killed, and linked the incident to an internal rift among the management of the building, which was also attacked two months back for probably very same reasons.
Therefore, the South Africans’ decision comes as a major surprise that has got be condemned by every citizen of this country, not least the Pakistan government and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), who must now vigorously ensure that the South Africans rescheduled the itinerary and play here.
The UCB called off the tour only two days after giving it the green light and just 24 hours before Graeme Smith’s 15-man squad was due to fly out to Karachi.
There is no point at all in shifting the planned series elsewhere, either to South Africa, according to the first reaction of UCB, or at a neutral venue. Unfortunately though, the PCB had, in the past, bowed to the requests of some cricket boards and gone ahead with off-shore home series.
Pakistan cricket has suffered most in the wake of 9/11 attacks on the United States with the West Indies and Australia being allowed to play Test series at neutral venues when they should have honoured the commitment of playing on Pakistan soil. In between, Pakistan had to host a triangular tournament last year in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
The cancellation of the tour by Proteas means that the PCB is going to lose US$3.6 million in sponsorship and TV rights. Financially, this is a huge setback for the already cash-strapped cricket board because of the 15-month drought when no Test team visited Pakistan between May 2002 and mid-Aug 2003.
Until Bangladesh, the gracious tourists, arrived here last month, Pakistan had figured in just two Tests at home last year (against Sri Lanka in the Asian Test Championship final and a Test against New Zealand, both at Lahore).
New Zealand, who had also played three One-day Internationals in April 2002, aborted their tour barely a couple of hours before the start of the second and final Test at Karachi when a bomb blast left 14 people dead, including 11 French naval technicians, outside the teams’ hotel.
A PCB official told Dawn on Saturday that South Africa’s refusal to tour Pakistan was totally uncalled for.
“We have made all arrangements to ensure that the eagerly-awaited tour takes place peacefully. Every detail, regarding the South African team’s security, had been given due importance,” the official said. “This was a series which everybody in Pakistan was looking forward to. And this cancellation leaves us nowhere.”
Tauqir Zia, the PCB chairman, in a statement said: “We are very, very disappointed by the South African decision.
“We have spoken to their ambassador in Islamabad and he too was very disappointed because he had given a positive assessment only a couple of days ago.”
The PCB’s chief executive Ramiz Raja was equally shell-shocked at the reversal of South Africa’s decision to tour Pakistan. “They (the South Africans) have shocked us by calling off the tour. It is uncalled for and very frustrating.”
Ramiz deplored the naive stance adopted by the South Africans especially after their security delegation had praised the facilities in Karachi and Peshawar, the two cities that they were apprehensive of visiting. “Then why did we go through the exercise of giving security drills to their delegation?
“Weren’t they (the security team) pleased with the stringent and state-level security we had planned for the South African cricketers,” the former Pakistan captain questioned.
Ramiz was indignant that the successful completion of tour by Bangladesh was going to mean nothing to Pakistan. “We have been hosting the Bangladeshis, aren’t they human beings?”
He warned that both Pakistan and South Africa cricket will definitely suffer.
“ The South African decision means that cricket should not be played even in South Africa where lurk so many dangers.
“ We can’t deprive the people of Pakistan, who are very passionate about the game, because they have not seen international cricket for 15 months on home soil. So how can we deprive them of watching good cricket against the South Africans?” Ramiz added.
Ramiz was unsure how would New Zealand, which initially led the boycott of playing here, react to the current situation since the Kiwis are due to play five one-dayers in late November to make up for that cancelled Test in Karachi 18 months ago. “It could have serious implications on the New Zealand visit.”
Meanwhile, the normally accommodating PCB has offered to reschedule the South African tour to begin a week later and is willing to change venues.
“We have offered them to change fixtures in Karachi and Peshawar and delay the start of the tour by a week,” the PCB spokesman Samiul Hasan said late on Saturday night. “ We hope something positive will come out of our offer and the South Africans will reverse their decision in the best interest of cricket.”
Sami also added that Ehsan Mani, the president of International Cricket Council (ICC), has come out in support of Pakistan. “ Mani has conveyed his concern over the issue and has assured ICC’s full support to Pakistan in this time of difficulty.”
The remarks made by UCB president Ray Mali on Saturday are also regrettable. He had stated that security in Pakistan had deteriorated to an unacceptable level.
Perhaps, the UCB chief should have first assessed the situation in his own country, both now and then, before speaking his mind on such a sensitive issue.
When Pakistan visited South Africa in early 1998 Saqlain Mushtaq and pace bowler Mohammad Akram were badly injured, just yards away from the team’s hotel in Johannesburg, in a mugging incident 36 hours before the start of the opening Test of a three-match series. Both players were going out for dinner when they were attacked by three men.
As a result, that tour was seriously in danger of being abandoned when the Pakistan team, led by Rashid Latif, had wanted to go home for security reasons but sanity prevailed and the series commenced with the PCB urging the team to stay and play in South Africa.