**PCB to seek ICC view on Karachi, Peshawar **
KARACHI: Pakistan will be asking the International Cricket Council (ICC) and its members next month in the West Indies to decide once and for all if cities like Karachi and Peshawar are safe for international cricket.
The Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Lt. General Tauqir Zia said on Tuesday that Pakistan had acted with prudence in dropping Karachi and Peshawar from the South African itinerary and were forced to do this to salvage the tour. **“But I have reached a conclusion that it is time for us to decide once and for all at the ICC level where do Karachi and Peshawar stand as international venues for touring teams,” he told reporters in Karachi.
“We are going to take up this matter seriously at the next ICC executive board meeting in next month in the West Indies. We want to ask all the ICC member countries should we start converting our cricket stadiums in these cities into football stadiums or they would be making no more excuses to avoid playing in these cities,” Tauqir stated.**
The PCB chief said that Karachi and Peshawar were to very big cities and major cricket venues in Pakistan and they could not be isolated by international teams.
“This matter has to be resolved because we can’t isolate Karachi or Peshawar where will the local cricket go than,” he said.
Pakistan has been forced to exclude Karachi and Peshawar in a rescheduled itinerary sent to the United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCBSA) after they called off the tour after a bomb blast in Karachi on Friday.
Tauqir said that to save the tour because of the financial and cricketing implications involved in it and because of the shortage of time, Pakistan had acceded to the demand of the UCBSA to drop these cities from the itinerary.
But he said now Pakistan would be approaching the issue very differently if other boards didn’t change their views on playing in Karachi or Peshawar.
Pakistan has said that if South Africa didn’t tour it would file a damages suit for $7 million with the ICC disputes resolution committee.
**“It is unacceptable to us this isolation of Karachi and Peshawar as international cricket venues. As these cities are as safe as any other big city in the world. And we have had no incident of sportsmen bring targeted in these cities. Every big city nowadays has problems with isolated terrorist incidents but that does not mean you stop all sporting activities,” he stated. "This issue of teams not willing to play in Karachi or Peshawar over security concerns has to be resolved by the ICC once for all and we will push for it.
We can’t afford to accept such demands from touring sides anymore," Tauqir repeated.**
He said that even the ICC President Ehsan Mani had taken the UCBSA to task for canceling their tour without first consulting the ICC or PCB.
“Gerald Majola and the former President Percy Sonn have always been very supportive of Pakistan cricket but in this case I think the UCBSA took a hasty decision.”
“I spoke to Ehsan Mani atleast 10 times during this crisis and generally everyone has been very supportive of our stand and understand the problems we are facing due to rescheduled tours,” the PCB chief explained.
. Can we start afresh when the games ACTUALLY start?
