England refuses to play test match in Karachi

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England ‘rule out’ Karachi Test

England have refused to play a Test in Karachi on their winter tour of Pakistan, according to a PCB official.

Spokesman Saleem Altaf said England will play a one-dayer in the troubled city and will decide in 10 days if they are prepared to play two.

“England have refused to play a Test in Karachi. They will go by what their security experts and the high commission told them,” Altaf said.

Lahore, Faisalabad and Multan are now said to be the venues for the Tests.

The England team are set to play three Tests and five one-dayers on the tour, due to run from 25 October-22 December.

Two security experts from a private British company have spent the last week assessing security in Pakistan on behalf of England, focusing on Karachi.

The England and Wales Cricket Board’s operations manager John Carr and Players Association chief Richard Bevan arrived in Pakistan on 3 July and have been briefed by the British high commission and PCB officials.

“The England and Wales Cricket Board has been made aware of news agency reports concerning England’s tour of Pakistan this winter,” read an ECB statement.

"Carr and Bevan are currently in Pakistan and will deliver a full report to the ECB chief executive and chairman on their return later this week.

“In the meantime, discussions will continue with the PCB over the proposed match venues and the ECB will be making no further comment at this stage.”

After the September 11 attacks, Australia and the West Indies refused to play in Pakistan because of security fears.

And Karachi has been rejected as a Test venue by South Africa and India since a bomb blast outside the New Zealand’s team hotel in 2002 killed 14 people.

Nasser Hussain led England to their first Test series win in Pakistan for 39 years when the team last toured there in 2000, winning a memorable Test in Karachi in the process.

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Re: England refuses to play test match in Karachi

i wonder how much weight is given to sectarian violence when evaluating security levels.....i doubt the entire fear is of targeted violence towards the English team, which is highly unlikely. i don't think this is very fair to Karachiites, but they get at least 1 or 2 ODI's so it's not a big deal.

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Re: England refuses to play test match in Karachi

Ha Ha Ha - height of stupidity...dont know on what basis they come to conclusion

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Re: England refuses to play test match in Karachi

This is just embarassing...Pakistan was all happy happy and joy joy (with insurance money) to play in Ahmedabad where Muslims were killed. That place did not get any bad publicity why? because BCCI stood up and showed some MOTHER F****** BALLS.

Bolnay Waley cheezain...... (merged)
Bolnay Waley cheezain...... (merged)
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Re: England refuses to play test match in Karachi

so is england visiting pakistan or punjab?

What happened to our Urdu?
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Re: England refuses to play test match in Karachi

Lets all bring our hands together and thank our beloved Altaf the Pir Husein and his henchmen as well as the whole of MQM for this....

What happened to our Urdu?
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Re: England refuses to play test match in Karachi

Hold your horses and lets get the facts right. Pakistan had similar concerns about Ahmedabad, and had refused to play a test there. Indian board accomodated Pakistani request and did NOT schedule a test match there, and as a compromise only held a One Day game there. This is EXACTLY what Pakistan Cricket Board is negotiating with ECB right now.

What happened to our Urdu?
What happened to our Urdu?
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Re: England refuses to play test match in Karachi

I am not talking about negotiations, I am talking about bad publicity. Karachi, Pakistan is the only place since 9/11 that's has gotten an automatic No No...for cricket. Is there a so called urban clean up going on there like Zim?

PCB needs to step up and give Pakistan a good publicity where they can play cricket.

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Re: England refuses to play test match in Karachi

Lets focus on cricket-related issues and not entrust PCB on spinning images for Pakistan. And quite frankly, PCB already kinda sucks managing cricket affairs, you really don't want them to be the PR champions for Pakistan.

In any case, BCCI in India can't help with the bad PR for Ahmadabad and Gujarat. It is what it is. Nor can PCB manufacture a good reputation for Karachi or any other city. It is what it is.

Reputation for safety takes years to build up, and can go poof in one bomb blast. The recent riots in Karachi didn't help matters one little bit. These issues are far bigger than PCB. Under the situation, 1 or 2 ODI's should actually be a victory for PCB. Lets not be too greedy.

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Re: England refuses to play test match in Karachi

Well, lets just hope England will agree to play back to back games in Karachi OR at least One.

Pakistan's situation is not that worst.

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Re: England refuses to play test match in Karachi

Some times perceptions are more important. And PCB is not in the business of creating perceptions.

They can work with whats in their control, which will most likely be to assure these security experts about the security plan for the team while it is in Karachi. If Karachi gets two ODI's, then it will be quite silly if they are not back to back. There is no point in having the teams travel elsewhere and then return to play one more ODI.

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Re: England refuses to play test match in Karachi

England will make that decision next week.

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Re: England refuses to play test match in Karachi

I think an ODI in karachi is good enough. Knowing karachites theyre just a bunch of lazy ass khotays who wouldnt be bothered to show up for the whole 5 days.. which in turn will give us (khi'ites) an even worse image i.e. no sportsmanship.

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Re: England refuses to play test match in Karachi

^apne aap ko khote kehte ho :hehe:

btw this is a beemari for all of Pak… very few among mainstream audience appreciate test-cricket

Dekho Mujh Say Pyaar na Karna................
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Re: England refuses to play test match in Karachi

so what’s the difference to other grounds in PK … they’ll be as empty as ever during the tests … if an oponent like India can’t pull off crowds then England won’t certainly … so Karachi should be happy about an ODI or two … atleast they’ll then have a fullhouse party …

On the other hand i think PCB shall behave the same way as ECB when we next time travel to UK … Think about Manchester … just send a socalled security envoy to check things out … England have been in the headlines for “crowd invasions” … and this for me is a serious threat to Players security … but then we’re talking about PCB … a shame it doesn’t stand its man when it come to such matters … but then the Pakistan Gov hasn’t helped much with the overall security assurance in everyday life too

Ik Ik Warq Lahu Main Tar Hai
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Re: England refuses to play test match in Karachi

Hmm i wonder if the PCB can pull something off to attract crowds in the order of the ones that showed up for the intercity 20/20 final.

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Re: England refuses to play test match in Karachi

the way foward for tests is to hold them in small centers like multan, shaikhupura and hyderabad so that we can get the crowds in but the prob is that these places dont have the hotels for the teams and the media to live in during the course of the game so we end up holidin them in the bigger cities

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Re: England refuses to play test match in Karachi

Imran supports England stance on Karachi
AFP

July 6, 2005

Pakistan’s legendary allrounder, Imran Khan, has backed England’s decision not to play a Test in Karachi during their tour of the country this winter.

Imran, who captained Pakistan to World Cup glory in 1992 before retiring to enter into politics, told AFP that the decision was justified, given Karachi’s recent history of violence.

“Until and unless the law-and-order situation is restored such things will happen,” said Imran. "When England’s security team was in Karachi the city mayor was quoted in newspapers as saying that next month’s local elections next month would cause bloodshed, and everyone took notice of it.

“You can’t blame the Pakistan Cricket Board,” Imran added, “because in such a situation if they press for a Test in Karachi the whole tour might get jeopardised.” However cricket officials in Karachi vowed to protest the decision and hit out at the PCB for failing to argue the case for the country’s largest city.

“England’s refusal to play a Test in Karachi is disappointing and we would protest over it,” Karachi City Cricket Association secretary Sirajul Islam Bukhari told AFP. "The PCB has failed to plead the case of Karachi.

“Karachi is a safe place and in a population of 15 million one or two incidents are common. Colombo in Sri Lanka staged international matches when there was unrest, so why not Karachi?”

Bukhari added that Karachi staged the 1996 World Cup successfully even though there was a curfew in some parts of the city. The three Tests proposed for the tour are now likely to take place in Lahore, Faisalabad and Multan while Lahore will also stage two one-day internationals.

England have agreed to play one one-day international in Karachi, and will decide in ten days’ time whether to play a second game as well. Two British security experts spent last week assessing security at various grounds in Pakistan, and two senior English cricket officials visited this week.

Karachi has been rocked by a series of deadly shootings as well as a suicide bombing at a mosque and the burning-down of a KFC restaurant earlier this year. In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, Australia and West Indies have refused to play in Pakistan because of security fears. Karachi has been rejected as a Test venue by South Africa and India since a bomb blast outside New Zealand’s team hotel in May 2002, which killed 14 people including 11 French naval engineers
http://content.cricinfo.com/pakistan/content/story/212780.html

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Re: England refuses to play test match in Karachi

Imran is an idiot and now the Ashes should be scrapped as well.......

Cafe Table Nr. 9, Reserved.
Cafe Table Nr. 9, Reserved.
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Re: England refuses to play test match in Karachi

Damage to Karachi's cause was done by no one esle but its own mayor, the idiot naimutallah khan.

Imran supports England stance on Karachi
**"Until and unless the law-and-order situation is restored such things will happen," said Imran. "When England's security team was in Karachi the city mayor was quoted in newspapers as saying that next month's local elections next month would cause bloodshed, and everyone took notice of it**.

Imran Khan simply played up what the mayor insunaited. Khan sahib is an idiot when it comes to political statements and this just exemplifies his stupidity.

Karachi is no different from Mumbai, London, Dehli, Columbo yet it s treated diferently and our Pcb spineless overlords hv always buckled in cause they hv nuthin to lose. Maybe its time karachittes boycotted all pcb organized events until they get justice.