India calls off Pakistan cricket tour

The Mumbai terror attacks finally took its toll on Indo- Pak cricketing ties as the Indian cricket board on Thursday cancelled 2009 tour of Pakistan on instructions from its government.

Relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours have been badly strained since last month's terror attacks, which India blames on Islamic militants based in Pakistan.
India were scheduled to play three Tests, five one-day internationals and a Twenty20 match during the tour, from January 6 to February 19, although there had already been grave doubts about it going ahead over security concerns.

"We received a communication from the government stating that in the present circumstances, it is not feasible to tour Pakistan," Ratnakar Shetty, chief administrative officer of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), said, without elaborating.

He said no discussions had taken place over whether the series could instead have been played at neutral venues.

Shetty denied that the decision could wreck the next Cricket World Cup, which is meant to be jointly hosted by India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

"It will not affect the 2011 World Cup as that is a different tournament," he said, adding he believed that relations between the Indian and Pakistani cricket boards would not suffer due to India scrapping the tour.

But Pakistan cricket officials said they were unhappy with Thursday's announcement.

"We take this decision as disappointing -- something which will hurt Pakistan cricket badly -- but it was beyond our control," Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ijaz Butt told agency.

PCB chief operating officer Salim Altaf said the tour cancellation would cause serious financial harm to the sport in Pakistan.

"We can safely say that it will be a loss of 25-30 million dollars, but I fear it could be more because in our television rights deal, tours by Indian teams are priced very high, higher than Australia and England," Altaf said.

Former Indian captain Kapil Dev welcomed the move, which he said was expected, with Pakistan hoping to draft in Sri Lanka as a replacement.

"We have to respect the government's decision," he was quoted as saying by a news agency.

"Obviously, the government must have decided against the tour taking into account enough good reasons for it. The need of the hour is to accept the government's decision."

Anil Kumble, who retired from international cricket last month, agreed the turbulent relations between the two countries had left no other choice.

"It is a good decision under the circumstances. We had known that we won't be travelling to Pakistan in the present situation," he said.

Indian Sports Minister Manohar Singh Gill had said last week he was not in favour of the team playing in Pakistan when "people from their soil were indulging in mass murder in India."

It was to have been the fifth series between the two countries since 2004, when cricket ties resumed after a 15-year gap caused by cross-border tensions.

Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar had said it would be "impossible" for India to tour Pakistan in the current climate.

"Diplomatically, there has been a fall-out between the two nations and I don't see why cricket won't follow suit. So at the moment it is impossible to go ahead with the tour," he told a television channel recently.

The tour was first thrown into doubt in early November when the Indian government denied permission to the national junior hockey team to visit Pakistan because of safety fears.

Australia cancelled a Test tour of Pakistan in March and the International Cricket Council (ICC) put off the high-profile Champions Trophy there in September due to security concerns.

The attacks in Mumbai left 172 people dead, including nine gunmen, and wounded more than 300.