West Indies manager may visit Pakistan

West Indies manager Ricky Skerritt will make a surveillance visit to Pakistan after his players expressed security concerns.

"The board has advised that I should make a reconnaissance visit to Pakistan to report on the security, as I did to Sri Lanka before the ongoing tour," he was quoted as saying by The Barbados Nation newspaper.

The West Indies are scheduled to tour Pakistan between Jan 25 and March 7. The PCB has already the itinerary claiming that it has been sanctioned by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).

"The players are very worried about undertaking such a tour with the situation in Afghanistan still unsettled," he said. However, Pakistan cricket officials said they were unaware of any such move though they admitted that they had invited West Indies officials to visit Pakistan a month ago.

"We have no such information that Skerritt is coming to Pakistan. But we had given West Indies officials invitation to visit Pakistan about a month back because they were in the same area (in Sri Lanka)," a spokesman of the PCB said Thursday.

However, the spokesman clarified that the visit should not be linked up with security. "Any official is welcome to Pakistan but we think security is no issue," he said.

Former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd is due in Islamabad next month on a week-long coaching assignment. Besides, last month Sri Lanka Under-19 played a five-match one-day series with Pakistan juniors.

Skerritt also described scheduling the second Test at Peshawar "a strange decision". Peshawar, the north-western city, is within a few miles of the Afghan border. But the PCB put their foot down when it said it doesn't deal with players.

"Peshawar was agreed as the Test venue by the West Indies cricket board when the itinerary was finalized. We don't deal with players. "If West Indies board would come to us, they will be given due consideration," the PCB spokesman said.

Skerritt said in light of the players' concerns, "I have suggested that a representative of the Players' Association join me so that the players can also hear from one of their own and that has been accepted by the chief executive officer.

"The time was getting short and a final decision would have to be made on the tour shortly," Skerritt said.

The Pakistan cricket officials are, rightly so, pressing for the series to be played in Pakistan dismissing all security concerns. They have also promised to provide as much security as any country would give. However, the ICC has proposed that if the situation doesn't turn normal, the series can be played at neutral venues. United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Moroccan city of Tangier have been mentioned as the likely venues.