CAPE TOWN — The International Cricket Council (ICC) will not be sending match officials to Pakistan for the tour of Zimbabwe should the limited overs series go ahead, the governing body said Sunday. The ICC said a security consultant had advised against sending officials to Pakistan, which will instead use its own umpires for the matches if Zimbabwe decides to tour the trouble-torn nation. The appointment of local match officials will not affect the official status of the games, the ICC said in a statement. “The ICC today advised the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) that it will not be appointing its match officials for the upcoming series between Pakistan and Zimbabwe,” the statement read. “The ICC Board, during its April meeting, had decided that the playing conditions relating to the appointment of match officials could be waived to allow the PCB to appoint local match officials for this series should the ICC decide not to send its umpires and referee due to the current security situation in Pakistan. “If this was to occur, the matches would still be considered ‘official cricket', even though they will not be played strictly in accordance with the ICC standard playing conditions.” A Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) delegation which visited Lahore, the venue for all matches on the tour, approved security measures put in place by local authorities last week. But the terror attack on a bus in Karachi that killed at least 45 people this week led Zimbabwe's supreme sports regulatory authority, the Sports and Recreation Commission, to advise that the tour be canceled. Zimbabwe is scheduled to play two Twenty20 Internationals, starting on May 22, and a three-match one-day series. The PCB confirmed that it would appoint its own umpires, which may include an umpire from Zimbabwe as well. Ticket sales for the series started Saturday, with police conducting a dress rehearsal of the security arrangements for the tourists. Pakistan has promised head-of-state-like security for Zimbabwe with 6,000 officers involved. Tour is on — coach Whatmore Zimbabwe will fly to Pakistan Sunday, its coach Dav Whatmore said. “The tour is going ahead and we leave tonight,” Whatmore said via telephone from Harare before reconfirming his belief the tour would be successful. It is understood that concerns also emanated from the players themselves, some of who were reluctant to travel but have now been persuaded to tour after additional security measures were announced by the PCB. Zimbabwe is the first Test-playing nation to tour Pakistan since a 2009 gun attack on Sri Lanka's team bus in Lahore. PCB appoints umpires Pakistan appointed a local umpire who survived a 2009 terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team for the home series against Zimbabwe. Ahsan Raza, now 40, will officiate during the series. Pakistan said Aleem Dar, Shozab Raza, Ahmed Shahab and Khalid Mahmood would also officiate along with Zimbabwean umpire Russell Tiffin. — Agencies
