Australia's tour to Pakistan unlikely

[Richard]

You know, the more I think about this the more I get aggravated. I'm out of this thread. FFS I'm sending my parents to Pakistan next week and, shock and horror, they won't have security guards following them around yet I'll sleep fine (and no that has nothing to do with any insurance money).

Deeply understandible sentiments, TBH. Those with full understanding, who know it's no more dangerous than going to a rifle range or whatever, will obviously be annoyed that the mystique element clouds things.

 

[silentstriker]

The same bad people in Pakistan have cousins in India too, who have been just as effective in killing prime ministers, school children in buses, families in their homes and foreigners too. And like almost everything else Indian, we can boast of an unrivalled diversity of such terror-perpetrators in terms of religion, language etc.

I do hope the Indian team responds positively to the backup plans, though. Pakistan is not an unfamiliar place for them, and despite the heavy workload a week or two of a few ODIs will be worth it at so many different levels. ( India can raise a very respectable XI from those not even in the main ODI squad, to mitigate workload - Ganguly.Dravid,Zaheer, AA, Yusuf etc etc).

To add to this, in comparison to Pakistan, Indian extremist groups have threatened Pakistani and Bangladeshi teams time and again yet I have never heard a peep from the Australian board about touring India.

You know, the more I think about this the more I get aggravated. I'm out of this thread. FFS I'm sending my parents to Pakistan next week and, shock and horror, they won't have security guards following them around yet I'll sleep fine (and no that has nothing to do with any insurance money).

Exactly. And actually, they have cousins in London too. So let's not go anywhere where there is a muslim population.

 

[mikeW]

BCCI threaten Australia

INDIA has continued its self-appointed role as the billion-dollar bullies of world cricket by warning Australia not to pull out of next month's tour of strife-torn Pakistan.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India twice attempted to blackmail Australia and the International Cricket Council by threatening to abandon its tour of Australia if serial offender Harbhajan Singh was not cleared of a racial abuse charge.
Now the BCCI has warned of serious repercussions if Australia abandons the Pakistan tour in the wake of almost daily violence and suicide bombings leading up to Monday's postponed parliamentary elections.
"There will be serious consequences because you can't just pull out of a committed tour when the host board is giving you assurances about security and so is the government," BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla said.
Shukla said Cricket Australia should have faith in the PCB and be assured that its players would be safe here.
"If the host board and government are willing to give assurances, you have to accept that. You can't just cancel a confirmed tour. The hosts know best about the prevailing security situation," he said.
However Cricket Australia has dismissed the threat.
"The ICC process says that if you reach the point where the visiting side has security advice which says it's not safe and the home side says that it is safe then you go to an independent arbiter," CA public affairs manager Peter Young said.
"The ICC has a company that provides independent advice. Presumably that was what was done with the ICC women's World Cup qualifiers which were pulled out of there (Pakistan) recently.
"The ICC agrees that it's not appropriate to compel a team to travel into danger."
A number of Australia's players have made it privately clear they will not tour Pakistan, and CA recently sent a letter to the PCB outlining security advice it had which said that Pakistan was not a safe place to tour.
Shukla, who toured Pakistan with the Indian team as an official in 2004 and 2006, said even when India was due to tour Pakistan, its players were scared of playing there.
"But we decided to accept the assurances of the Pakistan board and government and the players supported us. Once the tour was over they were all very happy at making the tour," he said.
"Similarly I think the Australians must listen to the arguments of the Pakistan board for whom the tour is important."
A PCB official welcomed Shukla's statement insisting it would have some bearing on the final decision of the Australians.
"The Indian board is an influential one because of its position in the cricket world and recently they have managed to get their point across to the Australians on some contentious issues on their ongoing tour," he said.


http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...001505,00.html

 

[Flem274*]

Tell BCCI to get ****ed. Someone needs to stand up to them sooner or later.

 

[silentstriker]

Merging threads..

 

[Sanz]

It was my understanding that the situation in Pakistan now, is more unstable than it was last time Australia toured Pakistan? The players aren't fortune tellers, and cannot predict what the political situation of foreign countries is going to be like in the future.

No, The situation is Pakistan wasn't good enough for Australian players in 2002-2003 either.

 

[Sanz]

Exactly. And actually, they have cousins in London too. So let's not go anywhere where there is a muslim population.

To be fair to Jeevan, He never said anything about Muslims. I think he was talking about extremists in general.

 

[Sanz]

Australian government's official position on travel to Pakistan

http://www.smartraveller.gov.au/zw-cgi/view/Advice/Pakistan

Basically, if you dont have to go (and the cricketers dont), stay away

That website should be named as dumbtraveller.gov.au. No smart traveller would rely on that junk website to make an informed decision.

 

[chaminda_00]

Anyone hear Lawson's interview on the situation in Pakistan on ABC radio grandstand show this morning. He had an interesting take on the situation, with his belief that the only places that are a treat to realistic terriorist attacks are the fringe areas of Pakistan, where no cricket is played. He belielf was that the main cities were as safe as most cities in Australia.

Also the govt have the same safe traveller warning about Bali and heaps of Australian go there every year.

 

[haroon510]

INDIA has continued its self-appointed role as the billion-dollar bullies of world cricket by warning Australia not to pull out of next month's tour of strife-torn Pakistan.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India twice attempted to blackmail Australia and the International Cricket Council by threatening to abandon its tour of Australia if serial offender Harbhajan Singh was not cleared of a racial abuse charge.
Now the BCCI has warned of serious repercussions if Australia abandons the Pakistan tour in the wake of almost daily violence and suicide bombings leading up to Monday's postponed parliamentary elections.
"There will be serious consequences because you can't just pull out of a committed tour when the host board is giving you assurances about security and so is the government," BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla said.
Shukla said Cricket Australia should have faith in the PCB and be assured that its players would be safe here.
"If the host board and government are willing to give assurances, you have to accept that. You can't just cancel a confirmed tour. The hosts know best about the prevailing security situation," he said.
However Cricket Australia has dismissed the threat.
"The ICC process says that if you reach the point where the visiting side has security advice which says it's not safe and the home side says that it is safe then you go to an independent arbiter," CA public affairs manager Peter Young said.
"The ICC has a company that provides independent advice. Presumably that was what was done with the ICC women's World Cup qualifiers which were pulled out of there (Pakistan) recently.
"The ICC agrees that it's not appropriate to compel a team to travel into danger."
A number of Australia's players have made it privately clear they will not tour Pakistan, and CA recently sent a letter to the PCB outlining security advice it had which said that Pakistan was not a safe place to tour.
Shukla, who toured Pakistan with the Indian team as an official in 2004 and 2006, said even when India was due to tour Pakistan, its players were scared of playing there.
"But we decided to accept the assurances of the Pakistan board and government and the players supported us. Once the tour was over they were all very happy at making the tour," he said.
"Similarly I think the Australians must listen to the arguments of the Pakistan board for whom the tour is important."
A PCB official welcomed Shukla's statement insisting it would have some bearing on the final decision of the Australians.
"The Indian board is an influential one because of its position in the cricket world and recently they have managed to get their point across to the Australians on some contentious issues on their ongoing tour," he said.


http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...001505,00.html

For once i agree with BCCI.. u know lately i have been agreeing with people that i have always dissagreed in the past

 

[pasag]

People can have misconceptions, board's shouldn't.

Myself and Sanz were talking about the individual players and their fears though, not the board. However the board can be concerned as well. They hear about the situation and are unsure about it, so they send out experts to determine if it is safe for the cricket team to go. The experts say no, so what does anyone expect them to do? Go against advice they've been given?

For mine their positions is totally understandable, so is the players and so is Pakistan's and its fans.

 

[chaminda_00]

Myself and Sanz were talking about the individual players and their fears though, not the board. However the board can be concerned as well. They hear about the situation and are unsure about it, so they send out experts to determine if it is safe for the cricket team to go. The experts say no, so what does anyone expect them to do? Go against advice they've been given?

For mine their positions is totally understandable, so is the players and so is Pakistan's and its fans.

I would question whether they really are experts. Considering they are the same people that place these tourist bans and pretty much any country that has the slightest civial war issue or terriorist issues. If you listen to those so called experts, there wouldn't be many non western countries you could visit.

 

[luckyeddie]

The terrorists have won.

That means they move up to seventh in the ICC rankings, just above England.

 

[pasag]

I would question whether they really are experts. Considering they are the same people that place these tourist bans and pretty much any country that has the slightest civial war issue or terriorist issues. If you listen to those so called experts, there wouldn't be many non western countries you could visit.

Yeah, it's a fair question that Sanz also raised, as far as I know a group of them went on a fact finding mission to Pakistan to investigate whether it was safe or not for the team to go there.

 

[silentstriker]

The 'experts' that SA hired for Sri Lanka were based in Dubai and they never sent a single person there, and it came out later that they just based their recommendation on news and such. I'll try to find the article about it.


And I've worked for a company in that industry. A dirty little secret is that 90% of the time, in these situations, you always advice them against going - no matter where (the firm I was associated with frequently advised companies not to go to cities like Berlin. They have a 'No Africa Ever' policy, so they'd take your $50,000 and just give you a pre-written report advising against going, etc). That's because if they go and something happens, you can get sued, or at the very least, you'll lose your reputation. If they don't go, nothing can happen.

 

[Richard]

You know, how on Earth that never occurred to me before I'll never know.

 

[silentstriker]

The 'experts' that SA hired for Sri Lanka were based in Dubai and they never sent a single person there, and it came out later that they just based their recommendation on news and such. I'll try to find the article about it.


And I've worked for a company in that industry. A dirty little secret is that 90% of the time, in these situations, you always advice them against going - no matter where (the firm I was associated with frequently advised companies not to go to cities like Berlin. They have a 'No Africa Ever' policy, so they'd take your $50,000 and just give you a pre-written report advising against going, etc). That's because if they go and something happens, you can get sued, or at the very least, you'll lose your reputation. If they don't go, nothing can happen.

You know, how on Earth that never occurred to me before I'll never know.

Yes, most people don't realize it. And me, in my naive little state didn't either, until I did some consulting for them.

 

[pup11]

If they don't go, imo they shouldn't be allowed to play IPL.

I heard a dude on the radio, some academic expert on terrorism - he was saying that there had been (and I dunno if this is right) 50 suicide bombings in Pakistan in a year or so. He mentioned the concern that, with Australia's involvement in Afghanistan, the players may be targetted given there are apparently some pro-Taliban elements in Pakistan.
Can't blame the players as individuals, but it would be sad imo if the tour didn't go ahead, yet the players will then go off and make their squillions with IPL.

The beauty of IPL for the players is that, if due to international commitments they are not able to play in the IPL they still get the money, so for the Australian players it really doesn't matter whether they play in the IPL or not because they would get their money, its just that they are concerned about their safety, but if CA gives an clear to this tour i can't see many Australian players pulling out of this tour.

 

[Xuhaib]

Indian Maoists kill 14 in Orissa

Maoist rebels in India have attacked police stations in the eastern state of Orissa, killing 13 officers.
A civilian also died in the attacks in Nayagarh district. The rebels escaped with arms and ammunition.

The attacks, which occurred 90km (56 miles) from the state capital, Bhubaneswar, are seen as a sign the rebels are extending their operations.

Until now, they had confined their operations in Orissa to less developed parts of the state.

Officials said several hundred rebels, including women fighters, were involved.

Reports say between two and four police stations were attacked. One was set on fire.

Gun battles

The head of the state's police, Gopal Chandra Nanda, said a training academy and armoury were also targeted. At least 11 policemen were injured.

There were also reports of gun battles as the security forces tried to repel the attacks.
Hundreds of rebels were reportedly involved in the attacks
Officials are still trying to determine how many weapons were stolen.

Hundreds of police and paramilitary forces are combing the surrounding countryside in search of those involved. There was no word of casualties among the rebels.

The Maoists are active in many states across east and central India. They focus on areas where people are poor but there is great mineral wealth.

The rebels say they represent the rights of landless farmhands and tribal communities. Hundreds of people have died over the past few years in Maoist-related violence.

The Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, recently described the rebels as the biggest threat to the country's security and called for a dedicated security force to combat them.

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Going by this the Aussies should refuse to play in IPL aswell due to security concerns but they will not since they are filthy, dirty $$$$ chasing whores.

 

[social]

Going by this the Aussies should refuse to play in IPL aswell due to security concerns but they will not since they are filthy, dirty $$$$ chasing whores.

Obviously mentioning the 37 killed in Pakistan today wouldnt have helped your argument much

Anyway, given that it's obvious that you dont like the Australians, why would you care whether they came or not?