Cricket Pulse

Pakistan’s anger over Australia’s decision to proceed with its Indian tour despite the serial blasts in New Delhi were so seething that a PCB official called the Aussies “lily-livered cowards”, according to a report.

“To talk simply of double-standards would be to understate what we feel. My personal view is that your people are a bunch of lily-livered cowards,” a senior PCB official was quoted as saying by ‘The Australian’ .

“You use one set of rules when it comes to poor Pakistan and another when it comes to India and the rich pickings to be made from the Board of Control for Cricket in India and playing in the Indian Premier League,” he fumed.

PCB Chief Operating Officer Shafqat Naghmi had also accused Cricket Australia of “double standards” by deciding to proceed with the India tour while cancelling their Test tour to Pakistan early this year and objecting to Champions Trophy due to security reasons in Pakistan.

“I think if Australia tour India it will only highlight their double standards on security issues,” Naghmi had said.

But Cricket Australia and Australian Cricketers’ Association rubbished such accusations, saying the security situation in India and Pakistan were different.

“We rely on the independent people to give us the advice and it is nothing about India or Pakistan over this, it is about the situation in any given country. The threat assessment for India has been considerably lower than that of Pakistan,” he said.

“I’ve been in touch with a couple of players and they just wanted to know what the process was. There’s no panic within the group. There’s just some general concern,” he added.

A CA spokesman said security had already been upgraded for the current Australia A tour and would remain in place for the senior team.

He said the decision not to tour Pakistan and to go to India was based on the available security information.

Dispassionately we have received different information on those different countries,” the spokesman said.

There were also conflicting reports in Australian media over PCB’s threat to take legal recourse on this matter.

‘The Australian’ said PCB was contemplating suing CA if it goes ahead with next month’s tour of India while ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ reported the denial of such a move.