By IANS,
Karachi : Upset over Australia’s “double standards”, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is considering legal action against Cricket Australia (CA) if it goes ahead with the India tour in spite of a series of bomb blasts in Delhi last week, though it pulled out of a tour to Pakistan earlier.
The PCB officials are fully convinced that the Australians, who scrapped their tour of Pakistan earlier this year and also decided to stay away from the Champions Trophy citing security fears, will visit India as planned, The News reported Tuesday.
The PCB top brass will weigh its options and if advised by the board’s legal experts, may knock at the doors of Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to seek compensation, sources were quoted as saying in the report.
A PCB official confirmed that the board reserves the right to take legal action against teams like Australia, who have openly displayed “double standards” when it comes to tours.
The Australians are supposed to fly out to India Sunday to play a four-Test series next month. PCB officials said that given Australia’s track record, it is unlikely that they will displease the Indians by scrapping the tour. “There is simply too much money involved when it comes to India to take any such decision,” they said.
“The top officials in the PCB are sure that Australia will tour India in spite of all the bombings.”
Several Australian cricketers decided against leaving India after bombings in Jaipur during the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL) earlier this year.
But Pakistan is a different story for them. The Australians refused to travel to Pakistan in March-April this year for a full series that included three Tests, five One-day Internationals and a Twenty20 International. Their decision to stay away from Pakistan turned out to be a deadly blow for the sport in this cricket-mad country.
The Australians were also instrumental in forcing the International Cricket Council to postpone the Champions Trophy which was scheduled Sep 12-28.
Pakistan lost millions of dollars following the postponement of the home series against Australia and the Champions Trophy. Pakistan are yet to play a single Test in 2008 and are now begging for matches against countries like the West Indies and New Zealand.