Australia says NO..

http://wwos.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=617408

NZ likely to follow thier lead.

yup, gonna be a pretty stupid tournament now..

move it too south africa I say

Nah lobby to move it to Sri Lanka,. thats a compromise those stubborn bastards might accept

Otherwise its all fucked, so ridiculous that there is such a clear black/white split Windies should be on our side!

More suicide attacks in Pakistan overnight. Surely they can't expect teams to turn up to this tournament? They should move it rather than have teams pulling out.

yup, move it from one politically unstable shit hole, to another politically unstable shit hole. In fact, move it to the country where they INVENTED suicide bombing!

I don't think so.

Move it so South Africa. It might be crime ridden, but at least it's political stable, and they haven't had any bombing there since the early 90s...

Dont get me wrong, Id love to see it moved there and Im sure the yaya's would do a great job even at such sort notice.

I just dont think its a realistic enough compromise. The subcontinent brigade would hate it if the infernal white massiv took the tourney away completly. Sri Lanka is our only hope. Australia will play there and once they go we all follow

Move it the Windies and Jamaica they should still be pretty set up groud wise form World Cup last year

I wouldn't trust the windies to get it ready in time, and it's too much of a hassle when you're dealing with multiple countries.


RSA is easier, they've got the infrastructure ready to go, and, most importantly, they've offered to host it.

it's too late to move it anywhere now.... this is going to be the Asia Cup + Windies

Its not "easier" at all ..more "idealistic". Move to SL was the tournies only hope of going ahead properly, not sure why you cant get that

SL has the same probs as pakistan.. last time RSA toured SL there was a terrorist attack and RSA had to pull out of the tour...

That may be true...but I was under the impression that a move to SL was all it was going to take for Aus/England to reopen the negotiation window

SA was never going to work

well RSA has pulled out too now

and with that the broadcasters will pull their money, and so the tournament will be over.. unless they move it.

So either it gets moved or it won't happen. Pretty simple decision for the ICC there..

BTW this statement from south africa is the first official one. the australian's haven't officially said no, yet.

Have to say, I can't really blame the players for pulling out... it doesn't really matter what security you put in place, if there are people motivated to carry out suicide attacks, it's damn near impossible to stop them. The second attempted London bombings - 2 weeks after the first, with the city on highest possible alert, and which only failed due to the terroists' incompetance - proved that.

And it's clear Pakistan is at one of it's most unstable points in recent years. The chance of something affecting the players may be small, but it's large enough that I'm not surprise they're concerned about it. No matter what the PCB or ICC try to tell them.

To be honest, I've always thought the Champions Trophy is one of those tournaments that should be played outside of the test playing nations. It might not generate the revenue short term but in a strategic sense it would definitely help grow the game internationally.

well, it's postponed. I think it's actually a good thing tho. It will give smith time to recover from his tennis elbow so that he'll be ready to take on australia dec/jan

Postphoned? Till when? Pakistan become politically stable? Im not an expert on this region but is that actually remotely likely within an acceptable time frame? Even if it cen be postphoned.... what other windows are there where nations arent playing their own series?

Again. Postphoned? wtf How it that even an option... F*cking stubborn c*nts just move it already

yup, till 2009 and then they'll also make a decision about a new venue. So if Paki is still no-go, they'll host it somewhere else.

Every team but India/Pak/SL has pulled out, so they couldn't exactly still run it...

imo, its ridiculous that it took this long to make a decision. Sad for the Pakistani\'s, and yeh i guess India dragged the chain a bit too, but the call should have been made months ago, and an alternate venue decided. I mean did they expect the situation to change in a few months? I dont see it improving much in the next year, but i suppose its better for cricket to postpone it than to go on with a tournament of mediocrity. ICC needs a slap, namby pamby decision making and excessive beauracracy are killing the game.

Yeah I was about to post something similair the forgot, they just ruined the tourney by being stubborn and thinking they could change Aus/Englands minds ....which was never going to happen. And its prob not going to happen in Pakistan next year either

F*cking ICC. Now all we have to look forward to is touring Bangledesh

Was good to see the Windies pull out as well though, Im very uncomfortable with the notion of a black/white split on issues

yeh, agree on the Windies thing. Sux we get no decent cricket until november in Aus. Listened to Dan on radio sport this morning, he pulled the ol \"well its a blessing in diguise really, we had been pretty hard at it by the time we finished in England, and an extra few weeks to prepare will do us good\".
That made me retch a little, as once again we\'re going into Aussie COLD, after a substandard warm up series and no other match practice since fuckin ages ago. Ghey, Aus is going to kill us

Apparently looking for fixtures, but not much hope of finding any:

http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/newzealand/content/current/story/366252.html

In other news, SA all out for 83