KARACHI: Pakistan’s cricket board said Thursday it had decided not to send its Under-19 team to play a scheduled match in Bangladesh in October because of security concerns.
“Pakistan declines to send its Under-19s to Bangladesh in October 2009 due to security concerns,” said the PCB release, without elaborating.
Bangladesh in March postponed the Pakistani national team’s one-day tour of the country after a military mutiny in the country a month before.
More than 70 people died in Dhaka when rank-and-file border guards turned on their superiors, killing at least 56 senior army officers, during a 33-hour bloody revolt in Dhaka in late February.
Pakistan has also recently suffered a huge blow to its status as an international cricket venue, when gunmen attacked a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team to a match in the eastern city of Lahore in March.
Seven Sri Lankan players and their assistant coach were injured during the attack. Six policemen and two civilians were killed.
Before the Lahore attacks, Pakistan was already seen as a danger zone for international teams, who refused to tour there after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and the ensuing “war on terror.” The International Cricket Council moved the Champions Trophy 2009 and World Cup 2011 matches out of Pakistan over fears for the safety of foreign teams.
Kolkata fire Buchanan after dismal IPL show
Kolkata Knight Riders yesterday sacked controversial Australian coach John Buchanan after their poor performance in the recent Indian Premier League. The Kolkata team finished last in the eight-team IPL in South Africa last month, losing 10 of their 14 league matches.
“Buchanan has informed Knight Riders that despite his hard work over the past two seasons, he has not achieved everything that he set out to,” KKR co-owner Jay Mehta said in a statement.
“We have amicably agreed that Knight Riders will release him from his contract with immediate effect.”
The Kolkata team also failed to make it to the semi-finals in the inaugural IPL edition in India last year, when Buchanan was cricket manager.
“I would like to state that John is a great coach. He had a vision for Knight Riders and did not waver from this vision,” said Mehta.
“Unfortunately, it has not brought the results that are so necessary to this franchise.” Buchanan is set for a coaching role with England ahead of the Ashes series against Australia. He has been asked to work with England’s player development program, mainly the youth and the ‘A’ sides and is due to talk to coach Andy Flower in the build-up to the first Ashes Test in Cardiff on July 8.
Buchanan, who had a successful eight-year stint as Australia’s national coach, sparked a controversy ahead of this year’s IPL when he floated the idea of having multiple captains in Twenty20.
Effigies of him were burnt in Kolkata by fans of former India captain Sourav Ganguly who believed the concept was meant to dilute the powers of their popular ‘Prince of Kolkata’.
Buchanan left the Australia job after the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies as elite cricket’s most successful coach, with a winning record of 70 percent after becoming national coach in 1999.
