The International Cricket Council (ICC) Wednesday disowned itsresponsibility of rescheduling New Zealand’s tour to Pakistan which isall but cancelled because of security concerns prevailing in theregion

Samiul Hasan20-Sep-2001The International Cricket Council (ICC) Wednesday disowned itsresponsibility of rescheduling New Zealand’s tour to Pakistan which isall but cancelled because of security concerns prevailing in theregion.”It is not the ICC’s responsibility to reschedule the New Zealand tourto Pakistan,” the game’s governing body said in a statement to Dawn.”(The) ICC sets the schedule with the 10-year tour programme, butafter that it is the responsibility of individual countries to fulfilthe fixtures.”We (ICC) hope that this will be the case, but obviously it willdepend on the political situation,” ICC communication manager, MarkHarrison, said while replying to Dawn’s questionnaire. However, whileexpressing its disappointment over the ‘temporarily’ cancellation ofthe tour, the ICC urged New Zealand to tour Pakistan. “… (The ICC)fully understands the reasons behind this (NZC) decision. Looking tothe future, we would urge the NZC to monitor the situation closely andaim to reschedule the tour if this becomes feasible.”While the ICC tried to escape from shouldering its responsibility, NewZealand Cricket (NZC) chief executive Martin Snedden said inWellington that he would continue to work with Pakistan to resolve thematter. “NZC will honour its commitment to tour Pakistan, when thetime is right. The health of the 10-year plan is based on reciprocaltours and we fully acknowledge our obligation to tour Pakistan withinthe foreseeable future,” Snedden said.The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) director Munawar Rana refused tocomment on latest ICC’s position. Probably the PCB official doesn’twant to involve himself in the controversy. But fact of the matter isif the PCB will not voice its concern and protest on repeatedcancellation of tours, who will?Pakistan stands to lose approximately $5million over the cancellationof the New Zealand tour which is set to hamper the development andpromotion projects in the country. Pakistan has already lost revenuesestimated to be worth $15million after India cancelled a scheduledtour to Pakistan earlier this year.Pakistan also suffered another loss of Rs20 million through titlesponsorship when India refused to cross borders for the Asian TestChampionship match scheduled between Sept 12 and 16 at Lahore.Ironically, the Black Caps were set to tour Pakistan according to themuch publicized ICC’s 10-year programme which was constituted,approved and released last year. The ICC had masterminded the 10-yearplan to provide equal opportunity to countries to play Test matches onhome and away basis.The other objective of the 10-year plan was to award World TestChampionship to the team accumulating highest number of points oncricket played in the first five years. The ICC’s arrogant response isyet another example of its ineffectiveness. The ICC has been accusedof being a toothless body which has preferred to play the role asspectator rather than make its presence felt on matters which aresensitive and needs mediation.The ICC further said it would not reschedule future tours by thecountries to Pakistan because of the unpredictable political scenarioin that part of the world. “(The) ICC does not intend to reschedulefuture tours to Pakistan as that would presume the troubled situationwill prevail,” the statement said.It added: “At this point in time and given the uncertainty involvedthe most practical course of action is for ongoing assessment of thesituation.” Pakistan are to host the West Indies and Australia nextyear. Interestingly, both the countries had forfeited their 1996 WorldCup matches in Sri Lanka because of security concerns. Needless to saythat they would act the same if there was even a little element ofinsecurity in Pakistan. Harrison admitted that the Indian situationwas also a difficult one. It may be mentioned here that India arescheduled to tour Pakistan thrice in accordance with the 10-year plan.”The Indian situation is another difficult one, as the team isprevented from touring by its government and not its cricket board,”he said with reference to New Delhi’s claims that no cricket teamwould tour Pakistan until political situation eases out.”The ICC recognizes that it has limited influence on matters offoreign policy.” New Delhi’s policy on cricket seems to be a childgame. Earlier this year, it said it had no objection to its teamplaying Pakistan in multi-national tournament. But later it withdrewfrom April’s Sharjah Cup and then the Asian Test Championship. TheBoard of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had to end up as thelaughing stock as it had submitted New Delhi’s No ObjectionCertificate (NOC) in May’s Asian Cricket Council (ACC) meeting atLahore.