West Indies call off tour of Pakistan

The Pakistan Cricket Board's efforts to arrange a home series have been dealt a blow as West Indies have opted not to tour next month because of security concerns. Senior players had already expressed concerns about visiting Pakistan and the decision comes a week after the West Indies women's team called off the Pakistan leg of their Asian tour.

Donald Peters, the chief executive of the West Indies board, said negotiations are on to reschedule the tour. "We are in talks with the PCB at present with the hope of getting the tour deferred to another date, but at this time we are not going to tour the country," Peters told Caribbean Media Corporation Sport.

"At the end of the last (WICB) board meeting, the directors wanted a security report on the situation in Pakistan and I contacted the PCB. I had requested a security plan from them that was okayed by their police and military.

"They got this plan and sent it to me and we were then looking further at getting an independent security firm but this was not done because we had decided that at this point it was not really safe for the players to go to Pakistan."

Pakistan have already had two high-profile postponements this year: Australia's tour was put off, as was the Champions Trophy. They have not played a home Test since October 2007 and the only tournaments they have hosted this year are the Asia Cup and ODI series against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.