Lahore, Oct 2: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has rescheduled its development committee meeting in Lahore for Oct 20 and 21, Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Lt Gen Tauqir Zia said from Colombo.

"It is a decision that is in the right direction and hopefully will lead foreign teams to resume tours to Pakistan," the PCB Chairman said in a statement. The ICC took the decision in its executive board meeting in the Sri Lankan capital.

The meeting was originally scheduled in Lahore for Oct 27 but was cancelled in July because of security concerns. Most of the top cricket board officials, including ICC chairman Malcolm Gray and chief executive Malcolm Speed, are expected to attend the two-day meeting.

"This meeting will hopefully end the fears of foreign teams who have recently relied more on their own source of information rather than trusting the words of the Pakistan government. The foreign delegates will be provided the highest protocol and best hospitality so that they can take back the positives from here", the PCB chairman said.

The chairman said getting the ICC meeting back in Lahore was one of the top issues of Pakistan. He said the ICC also accepted Pakistan's request of constituting a "safety and security commission" that will submit its report on countries that were engulfed by security problems.

The following are the general principles of the commission:
a) need to maximize the chances of scheduled tours proceeding;
b) to decide if it is unsafe to tour, a team should not be punished for refusing to do so;
c) the commission should evaluate safety and its decision should be binding on members;
d) the commission should include representatives of the players and insurance industry;
e) where the commission rules that it is safe for a tour to proceed, a member that refuses to tour will be subject to heavy sanctions;
f) safety and security are the only reasons for refusing to tour. A country that refuses to or is unable to tour as a result of political reasons or government direction will be subject to heavy penalties.

Pakistan, in the executive board meeting, also submitted the Justice Karamat Bhandari report. Justice Bhandari investigated the charges of foul-play during the 1999 World Cup and cleared all the players of any wrongdoings. Sir Paul Condon's Anti Corruption Unit (ACU) was also given another three-year extension by the ICC.

The Chairman of the cricket board said he met Sir Paul Condon and inquired why only Pakistan's match against Sri Lanka in the ICC Champions Trophy was examined.

"Sir Paul Condon explained to me that his unit had secured the footages of all the matches and it was just coincidence that Pakistan got publicity for wrong reasons because Pakistan was involved in the opening match of the competition."

Samiul Hasan
GM Media
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