SOUTH AFRICA CANCELS - PCB SLAMS SOUTH AFRICA!

Furious Pakistan slams South African tour cancellation
2 hours, 4 minutes ago


KARACHI (AFP) - The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has slammed South Africa's decision to cancel its cricket tour following a bomb blast in a city office block, deriding it as "uncalled for and disappointing."


AFP/File Photo



"They have shocked us by calling off the tour," PCB's chief executive Ramiz Raja told AFP on Saturday.


"It's uncalled for and disappointing."


The United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCBSA) notified its Pakistani counterpart of the decision via fax earlier Saturday, just 24 hours before the team was due to depart for the Islamic republic.


They were to arrive in Karachi Monday and had scheduled a warm-up match on Wednesday ahead of the first of three one-day matches on Friday, both in the commerical port city.


UCBSA president Ray Mali told a press conference in Johannesburg that the security situation in Pakistan had deteriorated to an unacceptable level and South Africa had no alternative but to call the tour off.


"The decision has been taken with much regret. We know how much the tour means to the people of Pakistan and it is also a tour which we have been looking forward to. But the safety of our players is our primary concern," Mali said.


South Africa would have been the first Western team to tour Pakistan since May 2002, when New Zealand cut short their tour after a bomb outside their Karachi hotel killed 14 people.


A home-made bomb, described as low-intensity and weighing five kilograms, exploded on the 10th floor of an empty commercial office block on Friday night.


No-one was injured or killed in the blast, which shattered windows and damaged the 10th floor walls.


Police ruled out terrorism, linking the blast instead to a commercial dispute involving the 12-storey Kawish Crown Plaza.


It was the second blast in the same office in two months. The July 11 bomb, also described as low-intensity, exploded outside office hours but killed two people.


South Africa had only given the green light to the tour on Thursday, after dispatching its own security delegation to Pakistan to assess venues considered risky in commercial capital Karachi and the northwest border city Peshawar.


"Why did we go through the exercise of giving security drills to their delegation?" Raja said.


Bangladesh has led the return of foreign cricket to the terror-hit Islamic republic, launching a three-Test series and five one-day matches last month. Their matches in Karachi and Peshawar passed without any security incidents.


Raja said he was furious that Pakistan's successful hosting of Bangladesh, who wrap up their tour in Karachi on Sunday, meant nothing for South Africa.


"We are hosting Bangladesh, aren't they human beings?" he said.





Both South African and Pakistani cricket would suffer, he warned.

"Their decision means that even cricket should not be played in South Africa where there are so many dangers.

"People in Pakistan are so passionate about cricket and it's a great deprival for them, having not seen cricket for 15 months and now being deprived of watching good cricket against South Africa."


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ok now I'm mad.........