Australians to tour Sri Lanka despite NZ withdrawals

BRISBANE - Australia's cricketers will play in Sri Lanka next month even though three New Zealanders have withdrawn from the Champions Trophy for safety reasons.

Craig McMillan, Matthew Horne and Brooke Walker were today left out of the New Zealand squad after making themselves unavailable for the International Cricket Council's one-day tournament.

The trio were part of the New Zealand squad which abandoned its tour of Pakistan in May when a bomb blast outside its Karachi team hotel killed 14 people.

"I don't want to go into specifics and I've not needed counselling but ... I didn't think I was mentally ready to cope," McMillan told NZPA.

"It is only sport after all."

But the Australian Cricket Board, which cancelled its October Test tour of Pakistan last Friday, is satisfied with the security arrangements in Sri Lanka.

An ACB spokesman said the 14 players selected for the Champions Trophy from September 12-29 had not expressed any concerns about playing in Sri Lanka.

Australian Cricketers' Association chief executive Tim May said the New Zealand players would have taken a different view than the Australians after their Karachi experiences.

"There is a clear differentiation with matters to be considered for Australian players and New Zealand players," May said.

"They might be trying to manage a trauma of the past and, from our perspective, we haven't experienced any of those traumas first hand.

"We have gone through an identical process for every tour where we assess security risks and we are quite satisfied with the security that will be offered to the players in Sri Lanka."

New Zealand Cricket chief executive Martin Snedden said the Black Caps were not placed under any pressure to tour Sri Lanka.

New Zealand cricket has experienced security problems in Sri Lanka, with tours in 1987 and 1992 disrupted by bomb blasts, while there was civil unrest in Colombo during the Black Caps' latest tour last year.

"It is accepted that when travelling overseas we cannot make any absolute guarantees about safety," Snedden told NZPA.

"When deciding whether to attend the tournament the safety of the team was our top priority.

"We made a thorough assessment of risks to the team which included speaking to government agencies and a visit to Sri Lanka by team manager Jeff Crowe and security adviser Reg Dickason, to speak to American, British and Australian Foreign Affairs staff and to check security arrangements.

"We have been advised that a ceasefire has been in place in Sri Lanka since February and the country is the most stable it has been for some time."

Snedden said New Zealand Cricket accepted the decisions of McMillan, Walker and Horne.