Pak, SA shadowbox over tour security

The team leave South Africa for Pakistan on Sunday and plan a whistlestop visit to Lahore, Peshawar and other centres the United Cricket Board sees as affected.

There are also claims in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad that the UCB is being ‘‘seriously misled by so-called security scares’’ based on ‘‘scaremongering tactics’’ by those opposed to tours of Pakistan by non-Asian teams. ‘‘I would like to know from just whom they received their security check information’’, Pakistan Cricket Board CEO Rameez Raja is reported to have said today.

Repeating earlier claims by PCB officials that there were no problems in Lahore or Peshawar, where the tourists are to play limited-overs internationals and Tests, South African foreign affairs stepped on their own landmine with contradictory statements.

The first was that they had received advice from Pakistan security not to play matches in the two cities, and then came the suggestion that once the three-man security team had visited the so-called affected security areas, they might review their security check. Plans to allow the tour to go ahead, or to curtail or abandon the visit altogether, are expected next week after the advice from a hastily appointed three-man inspection team of security advisers

A Western journalist based in Colombo, who recently visited the so-called security zones in Pakistan, wondered what the fuss was about. He is also of the opinion there is no risk involved. South Africa were forced to withdraw from the Sharjah tournament in April when the country’s foreign affairs office issued a ‘‘security warning’’ over the tournament after the invasion of Iraq. The tournament went ahead without a hitch, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh taking South Africa’s place in a revamped four-team tournament won by Pakistan.