Pakistan try to salvage SA tour

KARACHI:  Pakistan have sent a revised itinerary to South Africa excluding Karachi as a match venue in a bid to save the cricket tour called off yesterday because of security concerns. Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) spokesman Samiul Hasan told Reuters that the itinerary had been sent to the United Cricket Board of South Africa UCBSA hours after it cancelled its team’s trip to Pakistan due to start this week. “I can confirm this, that the revised itinerary does not include Karachi and has Peshawar/ Rawalpindi as the second Test match venue,” Hasan said.

The UCBSA had earlier this month asked the PCB to switch the matches at Karachi and Peshawar to safer venues due to security concerns.
But the PCB asked the UCBSA to tour according to the original itinerary, which had the South Africans playing a One-Day International and a Test in Karachi and a Test in Peshawar. The UCBSA cleared the tour on Thursday after a visit by its security delegation to Pakistan, but a bomb blast in Karachi on Friday night caused a change of opinion. Hasan said the PCB had also sent a letter from their Chairman Tauqir Zia to the UCBSA asking them to reconsider the decision to cancel the tour. “He (Zia) has also asked them to consider touring Pakistan under the revised itinerary. We are expecting the South Africans to respond soon as time is running out,” Hasan said. The PCB letter also refers to a past incident when it supported the UCBSA despite the fact that their  players were unwilling to tour South Africa in 1998 after a mugging incident in Johannesburg.