ICC declines to reschedule NZ's tour of Pakistan

The International Cricket Council (ICC) Wednesday disowned its responsibility of rescheduling New Zealand's tour to Pakistan which is all but cancelled because of security concerns prevailing in the region.

"It is not the ICC's responsibility to reschedule the New Zealand tour to Pakistan," the game's governing body said in a statement to Dawn. "(The) ICC sets the schedule with the 10-year tour programme, but after that it is the responsibility of individual countries to fulfil the fixtures.

"We (ICC) hope that this will be the case, but obviously it will depend on the political situation," ICC communication manager, Mark Harrison, said while replying to Dawn's questionnaire. However, while expressing its disappointment over the 'temporarily' cancellation of the tour, the ICC urged New Zealand to tour Pakistan. "... (The ICC) fully understands the reasons behind this (NZC) decision. Looking to the future, we would urge the NZC to monitor the situation closely and aim to reschedule the tour if this becomes feasible."

While the ICC tried to escape from shouldering its responsibility, New Zealand Cricket (NZC) chief executive Martin Snedden said in Wellington that he would continue to work with Pakistan to resolve the matter. "NZC will honour its commitment to tour Pakistan, when the time is right. The health of the 10-year plan is based on reciprocal tours and we fully acknowledge our obligation to tour Pakistan within the foreseeable future," Snedden said.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) director Munawar Rana refused to comment on latest ICC's position. Probably the PCB official doesn't want to involve himself in the controversy. But fact of the matter is if the PCB will not voice its concern and protest on repeated cancellation of tours, who will?

Pakistan stands to lose approximately $5million over the cancellation of the New Zealand tour which is set to hamper the development and promotion projects in the country. Pakistan has already lost revenues estimated to be worth $15million after India cancelled a scheduled tour to Pakistan earlier this year.

Pakistan also suffered another loss of Rs20 million through title sponsorship when India refused to cross borders for the Asian Test Championship match scheduled between Sept 12 and 16 at Lahore. Ironically, the Black Caps were set to tour Pakistan according to the much publicized ICC's 10-year programme which was constituted, approved and released last year. The ICC had masterminded the 10-year plan to provide equal opportunity to countries to play Test matches on home and away basis.

The other objective of the 10-year plan was to award World Test Championship to the team accumulating highest number of points on cricket played in the first five years. The ICC's arrogant response is yet another example of its ineffectiveness. The ICC has been accused of being a toothless body which has preferred to play the role as spectator rather than make its presence felt on matters which are sensitive and needs mediation.

The ICC further said it would not reschedule future tours by the countries to Pakistan because of the unpredictable political scenario in that part of the world. "(The) ICC does not intend to reschedule future tours to Pakistan as that would presume the troubled situation will prevail," the statement said.

It added: "At this point in time and given the uncertainty involved the most practical course of action is for ongoing assessment of the situation." Pakistan are to host the West Indies and Australia next year. Interestingly, both the countries had forfeited their 1996 World Cup matches in Sri Lanka because of security concerns. Needless to say that they would act the same if there was even a little element of insecurity in Pakistan. Harrison admitted that the Indian situation was also a difficult one. It may be mentioned here that India are scheduled to tour Pakistan thrice in accordance with the 10-year plan.

"The Indian situation is another difficult one, as the team is prevented from touring by its government and not its cricket board," he said with reference to New Delhi's claims that no cricket team would tour Pakistan until political situation eases out.

"The ICC recognizes that it has limited influence on matters of foreign policy." New Delhi's policy on cricket seems to be a child game. Earlier this year, it said it had no objection to its team playing Pakistan in multi-national tournament. But later it withdrew from April's Sharjah Cup and then the Asian Test Championship. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had to end up as the laughing stock as it had submitted New Delhi's No Objection Certificate (NOC) in May's Asian Cricket Council (ACC) meeting at Lahore.