May 16  
Aussies asked to rethink pull-out threats

KARACHI: Pakistan cricket officials have pleaded with leading Australian players to consider their positions carefully before pulling out of a scheduled tour there later this year because of security fears.

"I don't want to respond to what the Australian players are saying," PCB director Brigadier Munawwar Rana said after several voiced their disquiet over the trip following a bomb attack last week in Karachi.

"We would just like to repeat that we feel the other boards should allow time for the situation to be evaluated in its proper perspective," he said.

Media reports quoted leading Australian players as saying they would not tour Pakistan later this year even if the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) approved the tour in September and October.

Shane Warne, Steve Waugh, Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist were named as the players who were not keen to tour Pakistan for security reasons following the suicide bombing outside the New Zealand team's hotel in Karachi last week which killed 14.

"We had requested the International Cricket Council (ICC) and member boards earlier that they should put their statements on hold and wait for things to settle down," said Rana.

"In the present context we can understand the immediate reaction from different quarters given the impact the incident has had through the world media," Rana said.

"But we maintain that they should let the dust settle and then the scenario should be evaluated," he added.

Warne said he put safety and family ahead of cricket, while McGrath was reported as saying that "at the end of the day, we play cricket and we love what we do but to put your life on the line for a sport, is not what it's all about".

ACB chief executive James Sutherland has said the situation would be carefully monitored and it was too early to make any decision on the Pakistan tour.

"The Pakistan board itself regrets the incident and the loss of the valuable lives or the trauma caused to players from both teams. But it is something beyond our control," Rana said.

Rana was among a group of top PCB officials who met in Islamabad on Monday with PCB chairman Tauqir Zia to take stock of things in the wake of the New Zealanders aborting their tour. Rana said so far the PCB had not contacted the ACB on this matter or on the coming series and would do so after allowing things to settle down.