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Reuters: The International Cricket Council (ICC) will not be sending match officials to Pakistan for the tour of Zimbabwe should the limited overs series go ahead, the governing body said on Sunday.
The ICC said a security consultant had advised against sending officials to Pakistan, who will instead use their own umpires for the matches if Zimbabwe decide to tour the trouble-torn nation.
The appointment of local match officials will not affect the official status of the games, the ICC said in a statement.
“The ICC today advised the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) that it will not be appointing its match officials for the upcoming series between Pakistan and Zimbabwe,” the statement read.
“The ICC Board, during its April meeting, had decided that the playing conditions relating to the appointment of match officials could be waived to allow the PCB to appoint local match officials for this series should the ICC decide not to send its umpires and referee due to the current security situation in Pakistan.
“If this was to occur, the matches would still be considered ‘official cricket’, even though they will not be played strictly in accordance with the ICC standard playing conditions.”
Although the PCB claimed on Friday they had received an assurance from ZC that the tour was on, Zimbabwe continue to say only that discussions are ongoing.
Zimbabwe coach Dav Whatmore, who coached Pakistan in the past, took to Twitter on Sunday to suggest the team would travel.
“Looking fwd to returning to Pakistan as opposition coach and reacquainting with friends. Team zim are and will be working hard for a win!” he said from his official account.
A ZC delegation which visited Lahore, the venue for all matches on the tour, approved security measures put in place by local authorities last week.
But the terror attack on a bus in Karachi that killed at least 45 people this week led Zimbabwe’s supreme sports regulatory authority, the Sports and Recreation Commission, to advise that the tour be cancelled.
Zimbabwe were due to be the first test-playing nation to tour Pakistan since a 2009 attack on Sri Lanka’s team bus in Lahore left six Pakistani policemen and a van driver dead. Some players and a local umpire were injured.
Zimbabwe are scheduled to play two Twenty20 internationals, starting on 22 May, and a three-match one-day series.
Zimbabwe will fly to Pakistan on Sunday for a limited-overs tour, their coach Dav Whatmore told Reuters.
The tour, the first in six years by a test-playing nation to Pakistan, was throw in doubt last week when a terrorist attack on a bus killed 47 people in Karachi.
“The tour is going ahead and we leave tonight,” Whatmore said via telephone from Harare before reconfirming his belief the tour would be successful and that security measures put in place by Pakistan will be adequate.
Zimbabwe will play two Twenty20 internationals, starting on May 22, and a three-match one-day series that begins four days later. All the matches are in Lahore.
Zimbabwe Cricket released a statement on Thursday saying a decision had been reached not to tour on the advice of the country’s supreme sports regulatory authority, the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC).
The SRC cited concerns over the safety of the squad.
However, just minutes later the statement was withdrawn and Zimbabwe Cricket spokesman Lovemore Banda said discussions were still ongoing.
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Shehryar Khan said that Bangladesh and Sri Lanka will be invited to play in Pakistan after the Zimbabwe series, Dunya News reported.
Shehryar Khan said that the International Cricket Council (ICC) had been informed about the Zimbabwe series. He said that Pakistani umpires would stand as field officials if the invited Zimbabwe officials refused to attend.
Hoping for a successful Zimbabwe series, the Chairman of the PCB also revealed his future plans for bringing cricket back to Pakistan, saying that Bangladesh and Sri Lanka would also be invited to Pakistan after a successful Zimbabwe series.
