PCB warns of backlash if tour is cancelled

The Pakistan Cricket Board has warned India of a possible backlash if the Indian team's tour of Pakistan is cancelled at the eleventh hour. Samiul Hassan, the PCB media manager, suggested that it could demand compensation, or even take the extreme step of severing cricketing ties with India.

"We may exercise these options only after receiving an official communication from the Board of Control for Cricket in India, verifying postponement of the series, which has not reached us yet," he said. Shaharyar Khan, PCB chairman and a retired foreign secretary, warned that an Indian decision not to tour would have far-reaching consequences. "This decision (likely postponement) will affect the relations that have been improving in the recent past. This is a unilateral decision taken without consulting us," he said.

Certain sources from India's home ministry have suggested that LK Advani, the deputy Prime Minister, has asked the BCCI to postpone the tour until after the national elections - tentatively scheduled for mid-April. Khan though was still hopeful that the impasse could be resolved.

"We have not got any word, but we are prepared to wait," he said. A BCCI delegation is currently in Pakistan, checking out the security arrangements, but Khan suggested that "other things have to be sorted out at the government level".

He added that while the PCB was willing to show flexibility on any concerns the Indian security delegation or board might have on match venues, there was no question of the series being relocated to a neutral venue.

"All this talk about us offering to shift the series to Sri Lanka is not correct. Neutral venues are a complete no-no for us for various reasons." Pakistan have signed several lucrative sponsorship deals for the series, and a cancellation would hit the financially fragile PCB very hard.

"We have always had friendly relations with the Indian board and I am confident they would be able to stall any move to postpone or cancel the tour," said Khan. "We want this crisis to be worked out in a friendly manner." Many thousands of fans on both sides of the divide will be hoping for the same thing.