Source: The Statesman

Upset over Australia’s “double standards”, Pakistan Cricket Board is considering legal action against Cricket Australia if it goes ahead with the India tour in spite of a series of bomb blasts in Delhi last week, though it pulled out of a tour to Pakistan earlier.
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 Champions Trophy citing security fears, will visit India as planned, The News reported today. The PCB top brass will weigh its options and if advised by the board’s legal experts, may knock at the doors of Court of Arbitration for Sport to seek compensation, sources were quoted as saying in the report.
A PCB official confirmed that the board reserves the right to take legal action against teams like Australia, who have openly displayed “double standards” when it comes to tours.
The Australians are supposed to fly out to India Sunday to play a four-Test series next month. PCB officials said that 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,” they said. “The top officials in the PCB are sure that Australia will tour India in spite of all the bombings.”
Several Australian cricketers decided against leaving India after bombings in Jaipur during the cash-rich Indian Premier League earlier this year.
But Pakistan is a different story for them. The Australians refused to travel to Pakistan 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.

ACA’s concerned
CA might be ready for the tour of India despite last week’s serial blasts in New Delhi but the players’ association here remains jittery about the situation. While CA has stated that there is no threat to next month’s four-Test tour of India by the world champions, the Australian Cricketers’ Association is not so convinced and says that it still awaits the security experts’ assessment before advising the players on the matter.
“We’re concerned about all those things (terrorist activities),” ACA chief and former Test cricketer Mr Darren Lehmann said.
“All we do now, the same with every other tour, is check with DFAT, the government, do all the security checks with independent security people and our local guys and make sure we go through the right process to see what’s going on,” he added. The Australians leave for the series ~ starting 9 October ~ this weekend and Lehmann admitted that the time is running out for the ACA to take a call on the issue.

Bookies’ choice
It is still almost a month to go before the first ball of the much-anticipated India-Australia Test series is bowled but bookmakers and cricket punters here have already picked Anil Kumble’s men as favourites against the depleted world champions.
India were initially listed at $2.25 by Lasseters Sports before a leading cricket punter put a $ 6000 bet on the hosts winning the series.
The bet brought the Indians’ price down to $ 2 with Australia placed at $ 2.65. A drawn series is the least likely result according to the bookmakers, who have listed it at $ 4.25, The Courier Mail reported.
The reason for the bookies losing faith in the all-conquering Aussie team is the lack of quality spin options in the side and star all-rounder Andrew Symonds being axed for his “gone fishing” misdemeanour.

ICL exodus
Bangladesh Cricket Board officials, appealing to the patriotic sentiments of those players who have not yet joined the rebel Indian Cricket League, summoned them to a meeting yesterday, report from Dhaka added.
With six top Bangladeshi cricketers already having announced their decision to join ICL, the BCB officials reminded the others players contracted to it of its consequences. Nine players attended the meeting. The beleaguered Bangladesh Cricket Board has managed assurances from other contracted players that they would not fall for the lure of easy money.
National team players Shakib Al Hasan, Shahadat Hossain, Mehrab Hossain, Abdur Razzak, Mushfiqur Rahim, Syed Rasel, Mahmudullah Riyad and Zunaed Siddiqui met the BCB officials at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur to assure the board that they won’t turn ‘rebels’.
They also wanted to know who was pulling the strings on behalf of ICL, New Age newspaper said quoting an unnamed source who had attended the board’s meeting.
Another issue that was widely discussed at the meeting was whether the ICL had any role in Bangladesh’s disastrous performance in Australia, the source said.

 E-mail this article to a friend

Tags: Australia's "double standards, Cricket Australia, India tour, Pakistan cricket board