PCB yet to submit security plan to ICC for Bangladesh cricket tour

Islamabad: The Pakistan Cricket Board is yet to submit its security plan to the International Cricket Council for next week’s brief visit by Bangladesh for playing two matches in Lahore.

“The report is delayed, but I hope it will be dispatched today,” a leading daily quoted PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf, as saying. The International Cricket Council wanted to assess the security report before deciding whether it is safe to send neutral umpires and a match referee for a one-day match at the Gaddafi Stadium on April 29. Ashraf said the ICC wanted the report during last week’s executive board meeting in Dubai, but he was discussing the issue with all security departments. “We dispatched letters to all the (government) departments on April 16 informing them about the Bangladesh team’s tour to Pakistan later this month and I hope that our report will be completed today,” he said. The ICC had earlier said it could appoint non-neutral umpires if its anti-corruption and security unit deemed Pakistan unsafe. Bangladesh will be the first major team to tour Pakistan after a three-year hiatus, as Pakistan has not hosted any test-playing team since gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team bus in Lahore in March 2009. ANI