England not to play a Test at Karachi

The England Cricket Board has refused to play a Test match at Karachi on England's winter tour of Pakistan owing to security reasons. While confirming this Shaharyar Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan board, said that England didn't want to spend a week in Karachi but added that there was a possibility of staging a one-day international there.

Karachi has been a contentious venue on several teams' itineraries in the recent past, and the suicide bomb attack earlier this week and subsequent rioting by angry protesters might well have exacerbated England's concerns. Australia, West Indies, South Africa, New Zealand and India had all declined to play a Test match in Karachi earlier, and since the 2002 bombing outside the New Zealand team's hotel, which forced the tour to be abandoned midway, the only two countries to have played a Test there are Bangladesh (2003) and Sri Lanka (2004).

Shaharyar, who met David Morgan, the ECB chairman, in London, admitted that it would be difficult to convince England to play a Test at Karachi. "They have conveyed to us that while they don't feel there is any direct threat to their players in Karachi, they don't want to be caught in a crossfire as they have reservations over the atmosphere in the city," he was quoted as saying in The News, a Pakistan-based daily. "Their main concern is that if they play a Test it would mean they would have to stay for a week in Karachi and they are not comfortable with that prospect. We have started looking at the possibility of just hosting a one-day International against them in the city."

England's tour to Pakistan, which includes three Tests and five one-day internationals, is scheduled to start from October 22 and the Pakistan board had sent the ECB a proposed itinerary in which they had suggested a Test and an ODI in Karachi but had left out Peshawar, another venue that several teams have shown reluctance to tour, out of the schedule. "The proposed venues were discussed with Morgan," said Shaharyar, "and what we have suggested to them is they send a security delegation to Pakistan to see for themselves there should be no security concerns for their players while in Pakistan."

He added that the ECB would confirm dates of the delegation's visit to Pakistan by Monday and said he had given all security assurances to the ECB about playing in Karachi. Shaharyar said that if Karachi was ruled out as a Test centre, the board would then choose from Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi and Multan to host the three Tests against England.