Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Thursday rejected as baseless a report that suggested that South Africa have raised concerns over their team’s one-day game in Peshawar during its tour of Pakistan this fall.
Zakir Khan, PCB’s Director of Cricket Operations, told this correspondent that the Board has received no such communication from Cricket South Africa (CSA) and added that the tour would go ahead according to schedule.
“As the host country, it is our right to select venues for matches and we are going to decide if a change in the itinerary is necessary,” he said.
However, Zakir said that the Board might take an internal decision and opt to delete Peshawar and Rawalpindi from the list of One-day International (ODI) venues. “We are thinking about it but if there is a revision in the itinerary, it would be done by us,” he explained.
South Africa are to begin a tour of Pakistan on September 27 to play Tests in Karachi and Lahore while the One-day Internationals (ODIs) are to be held in Lahore, Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Multan and Faisalabad.
In the past, the South Africans have refused to play in Karachi and Peshawar because of security concerns. This time, it is feared that they might not want to play in Peshawar because of a spate of suicide bombings in NWFP and the tribal areas.
There are even fears that the series could be shifted to a neutral venue because of security reasons though PCB officials continue to rule out such a possibility.