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*Originally posted by saby: * i just heard Ramiz saying " If THAT is not enough for them then they should go and play cricket on moon " :)
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A very approprioate answer to this coward action
**South Africa pull out of Pakistan tour **
South Africa have pulled out of their tour of Pakistan, scheduled to begin next week, citing security concerns. The squad was scheduled to leave for Pakistan on Sunday, but a bomb blast on Friday in Karachi - local police maintain that it was not a terrorist outrage - resulted in a last-minute change of heart. South Africa were scheduled to play three Tests and three one-day internationals in Pakistan.
South Africa have attempted to placate their hosts by offering to play their series on their soil, or at a neutral venue, or even postpone it to a later date. (yeah sure) “The decision has been taken with much regret,” said Ray Mali, president of the United Cricket Board. “We know how much the tour means to the people of Pakistan and it is also a tour which we have been looking forward to. But the safety of our players is our primary concern.”
The Pakistan Cricket Board were left shellshocked by the decision, coming just 36 hours after South Africa had confirmed that they would fulfil their commitments. Rameez Raja, the PCB’s chief executive, confirmed that the PCB had received a fax cancelling the tour.
“They have shocked us by calling off the tour,” said Raja. “It’s uncalled for and disappointing.”
A UCB delegation had visited Pakistan last week, and pronounced that it was safe to play, even though the PCB had refused to shift macthes from Karachi and Peshawar.
Bangladesh, who finished their tour tomorrow, are the only team to have played a full series in Pakistan since the September 11 attacks in 2001. New Zealand went home midway through a tour last year after a bomb exploded outside their hotel in Karachi. Series against West Indies and Australia were then played on neutral soil, with both Sharjah and Colombo hosting Test matches.
Does Nelson Mandela belong to the same country ?? Dont tell me yes!!
Just read that Pakistan might drop Peshawar and Karachi as venues for holding the tests in order to save the tour.
Now we r bending our back til they (SA) drive us far enough to break it … why try to save something which was already on the cards to be called off …
Give’em also an insurance that Shoaib and Sami won’t bowl at their batsmen above 80 mph … it may otherwise cause the SA-Captain to regard it a threat to the players safety 
Furious Pakistan slams South African tour cancellation](Yahoo is part of the Yahoo family of brands.)
KARACHI (AFP) - The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has slammed South Africa’s decision to cancel its cricket tour following a bomb blast in a city office block, deriding it as “uncalled for and disappointing.”
“They have shocked us by calling off the tour,” PCB’s chief executive Ramiz Raja told AFP on Saturday.
“It’s uncalled for and disappointing.”
The United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCBSA) notified its Pakistani counterpart of the decision via fax earlier Saturday, just 24 hours before the team was due to depart for the Islamic republic.
They were to arrive in Karachi Monday and had scheduled a warm-up match on Wednesday ahead of the first of three one-day matches on Friday, both in the commerical port city.
UCBSA president Ray Mali told a press conference in Johannesburg that the security situation in Pakistan had deteriorated to an unacceptable level and South Africa had no alternative but to call the tour off.
“The decision has been taken with much regret. We know how much the tour means to the people of Pakistan and it is also a tour which we have been looking forward to. But the safety of our players is our primary concern,” Mali said.
South Africa would have been the first Western team to tour Pakistan since May 2002, when New Zealand cut short their tour after a bomb outside their Karachi hotel killed 14 people.
A home-made bomb, described as low-intensity and weighing five kilograms, exploded on the 10th floor of an empty commercial office block on Friday night.
No-one was injured or killed in the blast, which shattered windows and damaged the 10th floor walls.
Police ruled out terrorism, linking the blast instead to a commercial dispute involving the 12-storey Kawish Crown Plaza.
It was the second blast in the same office in two months. The July 11 bomb, also described as low-intensity, exploded outside office hours but killed two people.
South Africa had only given the green light to the tour on Thursday, after dispatching its own security delegation to Pakistan to assess venues considered risky in commercial capital Karachi and the northwest border city Peshawar.
“Why did we go through the exercise of giving security drills to their delegation?” Raja said.
Bangladesh has led the return of foreign cricket to the terror-hit Islamic republic, launching a three-Test series and five one-day matches last month. Their matches in Karachi and Peshawar passed without any security incidents.
Raja said he was furious that Pakistan’s successful hosting of Bangladesh, who wrap up their tour in Karachi on Sunday, meant nothing for South Africa.
“We are hosting Bangladesh, aren’t they human beings?” he said.
Both South African and Pakistani cricket would suffer, he warned.
"Their decision means that even cricket should not be played in South Africa where there are so many dangers.
“People in Pakistan are so passionate about cricket and it’s a great deprival for them, having not seen cricket for 15 months and now being deprived of watching good cricket against South Africa.”
^^ That would be a bad move, coz nothing happened in peshawar, infact that proposal shud have came from UCBSA. they hsould have said "okay there has been a blast in khi and we dont feel safe going there, Lets give other venue like Lahore some consideration " But nooooo, they were like " Oh My God, we should stay here and and buy ourselves new pair of pants " 
Strong language, good work Ramiz bhai :k:
If anyone wishes to protest against the SA decision send an email to:
Bombard them with your emails and let them know of your views.
Let's face up to some facts guys, SA players were not looking forward to coming to Pakistan following their marathon tour of England. All they needed was the slightest excuse to call off the tour. I don't think that Karachis is any less safe than it was during the height of the MQM days when cricket was probably played without any hitches. Pakistani cricket is suffering from the fallout of Sep 11. Pakistan will probably need to find alternative venues if we are going to play international cricket, teams won't want to go there now.
U mean to say PCB should shift it’s headquarter to Sharjah and consider Sharjah + Tangiers + (maybe Colombo) as their home grounds … 
Thats a big blow. It was a much anticipated series. I think Faisal mentioned it in another post and I agree with him that PCB should have moved the matches to the venues that the tourists preffered. PCB have been bitching and moaning about financial loos since 9/11 and a lot of teams have shown reluctance in touring Pakistan so we have our backs to the wall. We need to make sure the tourists feel safe. Let them play where the hell they want to play. They dont want to play in Karachi and Peshawar, well then hold matches other places. We need to bring cricket back to Pakistan. There is no other alternative. It doesnt matter what we have to do to bring it back. Initially we'll have to bend over and take it where we dont like it but once things settle down and a couple of tours go fine we can start holding matches where ever we feel like. At that time we can give Peshawar and Karachi more matches to make up for it.
They can do that or just not play a home series for a few years. Take your pick.
There is no point in picking up neutral venues because the problem of loss of revenues plus the people of Paksitan cannot watch the series still remains. if we are going to play at neutral venues we might as well play at the opponents grounds. Neutral grounds are effectively away matches for us. SA have used this as an excuse, lets not let them off the hook. They could have easily said that either change Karcahi and Peshawar fixtures or the tour is off. Instead they have used the bombing which the police has said is not a terrorist related incident as an excuse to call off the full tour. The defeat at Oval has really stung.
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*Originally posted by ehsan: *defeat at Oval has really stung.
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Very much true ..... and after playing for almost 2 1/2 months in a row one can for sure say SA players are tired but to use this blast as an excuse ...... cowards nothing else but cowards
The best slap on their face would be a NZ-Tour successfully wrapped up without any tiny incident ...... Hope against hope
If teams don't want to play in Pakistan we can't exactly make them, all it takes is the odd bomb going off here or there and they are off the hook. The lost revenue can be compensated by the ICC I suppose, but we aren't going to hurt SA by refusing to play them.
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*Originally posted by Zero_one: *
The best slpa on their face would be a NZ-Tour successfully wrapped up without any tiny incident ...... Hope against hope
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NZ won't come either.
I think after some long BLAH BLAH SA might say ok we r coming to PAK but we want the series to reduce to two tests and possibly a ODI triangular series with NZ as the 3rd Party ..... But then it's just a Dream i had few moments ago
this is a massive blow, the pakistani ppl are cricket-deprived, it would have been great for our new pakistan team to play against SA and we've lost about $2.2million in wat would have been sponsorship deals :(
All us paki'z wanted to see our new squad play against a high-class team such as SA, but that'll have to wait now :(
Apparently the bomb blast isn't linked to terrorism and that it was to do with an internal business rift..
Inshallah they can re-schedule.
Funny … but maybe not true as i am sure tht SA players hav played express bowlers like Donald,Hayward and co.Also they have pace bowling machines which can bowl upto 170 kph.
But saying this i don’t say they don’t fear Shoaib’s expression while bowling. lol
First of all, I agree with the fact that even before any security concerns were raised, the SA players were not in favor of this tour after their marathon, draining tour of England. I realize also that this tour meant a lot to all of us on GS and people of Pak. But if you look at the big picture scenario, I'd rather the series be held on neutral venue as opposed to Pak in this geo-political environment. God forbid if there was an incident in Pak while the SA team was here, that would pretty much mean curtains for any international cricket in Pakistan for a long, long time to come. Bangladeshis are humans, yes, but any issue to a western team would be a bigger concern as opposed to an Asian team for obvious reasons. If the goodwill and "izzat" of Pak remains in the sense that no harm is caused to the South African team by them not touring Pak, then I say hell with the $3.2 million and the series be held at neutral venue... PCB will still make atleast half that money thru sponsorship.