By IANS
New Delhi : The Indian cricket Board is adopting a ‘wait and watch’ policy about the situation in Pakistan following the assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto Thursday.
The Indian team is scheduled to visit Pakistan twice next year, first for the six-nation Asia Cup in June, and then in September for the eight-nation Champions Trophy, the most important International Cricket Council tournament after the World Cup. The Champions Trophy Matches will be played throughout the country.
Board’s chief administrative officer Ratnakar Shetty told IANS that the Board has not thought of the issue yet. “It is too early to even think of the Asia Cup,” he said.
Although the exact Asia Cup itinerary is still to be announced, most of the matches are likely to be played in Karachi and Hyderabad, according to sources.
Karachi is Bhutto’s home city and her party’s stronghold. Karachi and Hyderabad were affected by rioting following her assassination after a public rally in Rawalpindi.
In November, soon after President Pervez Musharraf imposed Emergency in the country, ICC postponed women’s World Cup qualifying tournament and then the Bangladesh Cricket Board deferred a tour by its under-19 team.
Before the Asia Cup, Zimbabwe and Australia are slated to tour Pakistan where parliamentary election is scheduled for Jan 8.
Zimbabwe will, in fact, arrive in Pakistan Jan 12, just four days after the election to play five One-Day Internationals (ODI) and two limited-over warm-up games.
Zimbabwe’s tour could well become the first casualty in the aftermath of Benazir’s assassination.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced the itinerary Thursday, though PCB president Nasim Ashraf avoided a comment on whether or not the tour would go ahead.
“This is a huge national tragedy and a time of mourning for the whole country. I feel it is not appropriate to talk about cricket. We will look at the situation in two-three days,” Cricinfo quoted Ashraf as saying.
Australia are due in Pakistan in March for three Tests and five ODIs.
At the moment, the Australian cricket board is not taking a knee-jerk decision.
“It’s an appalling tragedy and we only hope the situation in Pakistan will improve. But it has no impact on cricket from a touring point of view,” said Cricket Australia spokesman Peter Young.
CA may send a security team to Pakistan in February to assess the situation before taking a decision.
“We will make our decision in late January or February, closer to the proposed dates,” Young said.
Australia, who have not toured Pakistan since 1998, played three Test matches against Pakistan at neutral venues, Sharjah and Sri Lanka, in 2002 due to security reasons.