PcB reserves the right to take legal action against teams like australia: Official

[Xuhaib]

Pakistan may sue Australia over India tour



Tuesday, September 16, 2008
By Khalid Hussain

KARACHI: Pakistan will consider suing Cricket Australia if it allowed its cricket team to tour India later this month in spite of a series of bomb blasts in New Delhi last week.

Sources in the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) told ‘The News’ on Monday that the PCB officials are fully convinced that the Australians — who scrapped their tour of Pakistan earlier this year and also decided to stay away from the ICC Champions Trophy in the country citing security fears — will visit India as planned in spite of the deadly bombings.

The PCB top brass considers the Australians as Pakistan cricket’s enemy number one and is mulling legal action against them in case they toured India.The PCB will weigh its options and if advised by the Board’s legal experts, may knock at the doors of Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to seek compensation.

When contacted, a PCB official confirmed that the Board reserves the right to take legal action against teams like Australia, who have openly displayed ‘double standards’ on whether to tour a country or not.

The Australians are supposed to fly out to India on Sunday to play in a Test series to be played later this fall.Australia’s tour is under cloud because of the New Delhi bombings that left 20 dead in the Indian capital.

However, given Australia’s track record, it is unlikely that they will displease the Indians by scrapping the tour. “There is simply too much money involved when it comes to India to take any such decision,” said the source. “The top officials in the PCB are sure that Australia will tour India in spite of all the bombings.”

The source referred to the bombings in Jaipur during the inaugural season of the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL) earlier this year when several Aussie cricketers decided against leaving the country in spite of safety fears.But Pakistan is a different story.

The Australians refused to travel to this country in March-April this year for a full series that included three Tests, five One-day Internationals and a Twenty20 International. Their decision to stay away from Pakistan turned out to be a deadly blow for the sport in this cricket-mad country.

The Australians were also instrumental in forcing the International Cricket Council (ICC) to postpone the ICC Champions Trophy which was supposed to be played here from September 12-28. The Australian cricketers led threats of a boycott of the eight-nation tournament if the ICC allowed it to go ahead in Pakistan. Last month, the ICC decided to postpone it till next October.

Pakistan have lost millions of dollars following the postponement of the home series against Australia and the Champions Trophy. More importantly, their players and the fans have been deprived of top class action. In fact, Pakistan — one of the leading Test-playing nations — are yet to play a single Test in 2008 and are now begging for matches against countries like the West Indies and New Zealand.

 

[Xuhaib]

KARACHI: The Pakistan Cricket Board on Monday lashed out at Cricket Australia for saying yes to India tour despite Saturday's bomb blasts in New Delhi and accused them of adopting 'double standard' on security issues.

Paul Marsh, the Chief Executive of the Australian Cricketers Association, had earlier expected some countries, apparently Pakistan, to come up with such statement.

Australia had postponed their tour to Pakistan early this year and also refused to play in the Champions Trophy because of security concerns.

"I think if Australia tour India it will only highlight their double standards on security issues," Shafqat Naghmi, chief operating officer of the PCB told reporters in Lahore.

"Pakistan is as safe a country as India and we had even promised state level security for the Australians and other teams. This incident only shows the double standards of Australian cricket," Naghmi fumed.

Cricket Australia has said they were postponing or cancelling the India tour due to the Delhi blasts unless they were advised by their government otherwise.

Naghmi said the PCB was disappointed with the statement of the ACA as even the ICC and other countries had acknowledged the great efforts made by Pakistan to provide a safe environment for the Champions Trophy.

"Terrorist attacks can take place anywhere we have said constantly. No country is safer than the other and this point was highlighted after the unfortunate and sad incident in Delhi," he said.

"We find it hard to comprehend that when Australian cricketers can tour a country which has had a succession of bomb attacks what is so different about coming to Pakistan,"

 

[SpaceMonkey]

I can understand why Pakistan feel victimised in all this. But the fact is if i was a high profile sportsmen i wouldnt want to tour Pakistan either. Even if my fears were totally unfounded. I really wouldnt want to risk it. Thats just the view that alot of people have right now. I think Pakistan just need to live with it for the next few years until things calm down, which they are bound to. Crappy from their POV ofcourse.

 

[social]

Fair enough to feel aggrieved as it an obvious case of double standards but the fact is that CA have acted within the laws of the ICC

 

[pup11]

Why only target Australia, no western team was keen on touring Pakistan recently, but all those teams won't have any problems touring India due to the kind of money that is involved there.

I can understand where PCB is coming from but i can't see much changing with what they trying to do, at best all these teams might just send their 2nd or 3rd string teams to Pakistan, which won't do Pakistan cricket any good either.

 

[four_or_six]

Yes, this is bad for us too. We're going to India this winter.

I don't think it'll stick tbh, I think the foreign office advice, correct or not, would hold some significant sway at legal proceeding.

 

[Precambrian]

The key here is that whether the ICC conducted a "neutral" security assessment and found the results satisfactory. And yes, they did. So PCB have every right now to believe that this was a case of Australia not honoring the ICC Test calendar and commitment to tour Pakistan and can sue them for the loss incurred. It is not a unilateral world anymore.

 

[pup11]

The key here is that whether the ICC conducted a "neutral" security assessment and found the results satisfactory. And yes, they did. So PCB have every right now to believe that this was a case of Australia not honoring the ICC Test calendar and commitment to tour Pakistan and can sue them for the loss incurred. It is not a unilateral world anymore.

Good luck to them then.

 

[honestbharani]

Why only target Australia, no western team was keen on touring Pakistan recently, but all those teams won't have any problems touring India due to the kind of money that is involved there.

I can understand where PCB is coming from but i can't see much changing with what they trying to do, at best all these teams might just send their 2nd or 3rd string teams to Pakistan, which won't do Pakistan cricket any good either.

Australia has been basically at the forefront of the "I wont tour" Pakistan movement in cricket for a while now...... Maybe that is why these guys feel that way. When was the last time they did tour Pak, btw?

 

[Uppercut]

My initial thought was "they can tour wherever they want", but if they'd agreed to tour, then pulled out on grounds considered by a third party's investigation to be unrealistic (as cited by Pnottath), surely they have a case considering the ensuing loss of business.

 

[Richard]

I think Pakistan just need to live with it for the next few years until things calm down, which they are bound to.

That's the thing though - they're not.

 

[pup11]

Australia has been basically at the forefront of the "I wont tour" Pakistan movement in cricket for a while now...... Maybe that is why these guys feel that way. When was the last time they did tour Pak, btw?

They toured in 98, but after that they played Pakistan twice on neutral venues, the thing is that at that time Pakistan shouldn't have agreed to play their home games on neutral venues against Australia, but in the recent past the security concerns have been genuine.

Their current Prime minister was recently tried to be assassinated unsuccessfully, and one of their ex-Prime minister [Bhutto] was assassinated in the recent past, when Pakistan government can't assure security of such important people, then how can they assure security for a cricket team.

 

[social]

The key here is that whether the ICC conducted a "neutral" security assessment and found the results satisfactory. And yes, they did. So PCB have every right now to believe that this was a case of Australia not honoring the ICC Test calendar and commitment to tour Pakistan and can sue them for the loss incurred. It is not a unilateral world anymore.

The Australians argue that:

a. the tour was not cancelled, merely postponed;

b. an independent assessment was undertaken which advised them not to tour; and

c. their own government advised them not to tour.

As such, no compo

 

[honestbharani]

They toured in 98, but after that they played Pakistan twice on neutral venues, the thing is that at that time Pakistan shouldn't have agreed to play their home games on neutral venues against Australia, but in the recent past the security concerns have been genuine.

Their current Prime minister was recently tried to be assassinated unsuccessfully, and one of their ex-Prime minister [Bhutto] was assassinated in the recent past, when Pakistan government can't assure security of such important people, then how can they assure security for a cricket team.

It has been already pointed out that Bhutto basically went against the caution of the security people. And anyways, these guys have not been targetted before.. As I said, there is a stigma and that is what is causing the problems. If CA can find enough people to form a team who are ready to go over there and play, I think one such tour could finish off these concerns. I understand where they are coming from and I am ok if individuals are deciding they don't want to tour, but for CA to adopt this as some kind of a policy while not showing the same standards while touring elsewhere is what bugs me...

 

[four_or_six]

It has been already pointed out that Bhutto basically went against the caution of the security people. And anyways, these guys have not been targetted before.. As I said, there is a stigma and that is what is causing the problems. If CA can find enough people to form a team who are ready to go over there and play, I think one such tour could finish off these concerns. I understand where they are coming from and I am ok if individuals are deciding they don't want to tour, but for CA to adopt this as some kind of a policy while not showing the same standards while touring elsewhere is what bugs me...

They will never do that if it's more than one or two individuals. It wouldn't be seen as fair to put younger, less established and less well-off players into a situation like that, either having to feel as though they should compromise their safety concerns when others shouldn't, or also to put them in a position where they're basically saying their senior players are being unreasonable.

 

[bryce]

I wonder how much/if at all CA talked to Geoff Lawson about the matter, he can't help but wonder what the big fuss is..

 

[pup11]

They will never do that if it's more than one or two individuals. It wouldn't be seen as fair to put younger, less established and less well-off players into a situation like that, either having to feel as though they should compromise their safety concerns when others shouldn't, or also to put them in a position where they're basically saying their senior players are being unreasonable.

AWTA.

 

[brockley]

Australia has closed down its embassies in pakistan gives you a hint of how bad things are in pakistan.
You only can be fined by the icc if their is no security reason not to tour or the government has said no to the board which the howard government said no to a tour to zimbabwe.
PCB has no leg to stand on.
Despite that understand the pcb's position and frustration,but look at the country they live in.

 

[pasag]

I wouldn't begrudge them taking legal action at all to recoup some of their losses, but at the same time I doubt they'd get very far as Social pointed out.

 

[SJS]

Why only target Australia, no western team was keen on touring Pakistan recently, but all those teams won't have any problems touring India due to the kind of money that is involved there.

I can understand where PCB is coming from but i can't see much changing with what they trying to do, at best all these teams might just send their 2nd or 3rd string teams to Pakistan, which won't do Pakistan cricket any good either.

All these PCB protestations are for domestic public consumption. To show that "we are sympathetic to the public's feeling that Pakistan is subject to double standards and are not going to take it lying down"

What they actually do, if anything, as follow up on that 'threat', is likely to be just for some public 'grandstanding' and 'posturing'.