Fed: Aussie tour of Pakistan up to ACB; PM

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Fed: Aussie tour of Pakistan up to ACB; PM

By Nadine Rofail and Michael Crutcher

BRISBANE, Aug 3 AAP - Sport officials and not politicians should decide if the Australiancricket team tours Pakistan, Prime Minister John Howard said today.

Mr Howard said he would not pressure the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) to go aheadwith the Pakistan tour despite President Pervez Musharraf's guarantee the team would besafe.

He said General Musharraf had telephoned him 10 days ago to talk about the October1-24 Test tour.

"(General Musharraf) said he could guarantee the security of the team and expressedthe strong desire of the Pakistani government and cricket board that the tour go ahead,"

Mr Howard told reporters on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

The fate of the tour has been in doubt since Australian players expressed fears fortheir safety in violence-torn Pakistan.

The New Zealand team cut short a tour of Pakistan without playing the second Test inKarachi after an explosion outside their hotel in the city on May 8.

The venue for next month's tri-series one-day tournament involving Australia has beenshifted from Karachi to Nairobi.

"I told (General Musharraf) that the decision about whether or not the tour goes aheadwill be taken by the Australian Cricket Board not the Australian government," Mr Howardsaid.

"I am not going to put any pressure on the Australian Cricket Board to make a decision."

Mr Howard said he had passed on the contents of his conversation with the Pakistanleader to the ACB.

"I respect Pakistan as a great cricket-loving nation and competitor and I can understandthe desire of the government and the authorities for the tour to go ahead," he said.

"Equally I can understand that the security of our players must be worked out."

Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Tauqir Zia has threatened to lead an Asian boycottof Australia if the Australian side cancels the tour.

"India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have signed a Memorandum of Understandingand if Australia don't tour Pakistan, then I don't think any Asian nation will be visitingthem," Zia said.

He said the four Asian Test nations signed the agreement in Sharjah in April vowingto boycott any country that refuses to tour any of them.

"I wish the circumstances were such that there was no doubt at all that the tour couldgo ahead but we know there have been incidents and they're things the board must takeinto account."

Cricket in Pakistan has suffered since the September 11 terror attacks in the UnitedStates and the resulting military action in Afghanistan, as well as from tensions withIndia.

AAP nr/ph/sb

KEYWORD: HOWARD