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CA defends its position on India tour
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September 15, 2008 22:44 IST

Cricket Australia [Images] has dismissed claims that they were applying different yardsticks while assessing security threats in India and Pakistan, insisting security experts had not found India that risky.

The Pakistan Cricket Board criticised CA for planning to continue their India tour despite a series of blasts killed 24 and injured around 100 people in national capital New Delhi [Images] on Saturday.

PCB officials were peeved as Australia had postponed Pakistan tour early this year and also refused to play in Champions Trophy [Images] there, citing security threats.

"It's very simple. You go to the experts and if they say don't go, you don't go. If they say go, you go. The advice we have received in recent times for India has been be cautious, which was completely different to Pakistan. That advice was don't go," Young was quoted as saying in the Australian.

Earlier, Cricket Australia made it clear that the tour will go ahead as per schedule unless Australian government advise them not to tour. 

Young had said CA would listen to the Australian government's advice but said the team under Ricky Ponting [Images] would depart on September 21, as originally scheduled.

"Our position is that the tour is going ahead unless we are otherwise persuaded," Young said.

"Our advice is there are some concerns and to exercise caution, but currently they do not compromise the tour. Our plan is to depart on September 21, subject to our advice," he added.

The Australian government, meanwhile, made it clear that they would only pass on security advices but the final decision would rest with the cricket board itself.

"We will do what we do with Cricket Australia whenever they are looking at a difficult tour...we will provide them with all our up-to-date travel assessments and advice briefs," Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told Sky Sports.

"And they are also, as I understand it, getting their own independent security advice. In the end it's for Cricket Australia to make a decision, which is how we have dealt with the proposed Pakistan Test tour and the proposed Champions Trophy," the minister said.

Australian team's security advisor Reg Dickason has been asked to compile an urgent report on the security situation. 

Meanwhile, Australian Cricketer's Association Chief Executive Paul Marsh insisted that situation in India could not be equated with that in Pakistan.

"The threat assessment for India has been considerably lower than that of Pakistan. We want to find out if the latest bombings will change that in any way and what our independent experts think about our Australia A players being over there at the moment."

Spelling out the process which is traditionally followed in similar situations, Marsh said, "As always we'll rely on the advice of the experts. Our primary concern at the moment is the A team being over there and trying to get an idea whether it's an acceptable risk for them to stay," he said.

"We go to extreme lengths to obtain the best advice on the situation of each country we visit. In Pakistan's case this year, people we rely on told us not to tour. If they say not to tour again, we'll listen. Bombs going off anywhere are a concern," Marsh said.

The first of the four-match Test series starts at Bangalore on October 9.


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