ICC to review security

Karachi, July 16: Unhappy with the tardy implementation of security blueprint for the Champions Trophy by the Pakistan Cricket Board, the International Cricket Council has called for an emergency meeting in Dubai on Sunday.

The ICC has called the meeting following reservations expressed by its security consultants on the security arrangements for the mega event in September though Pakistan Cricket Board described it as just a scheduled meeting to take stock of security measures being implemented so far.

"The ICC security consultants are not happy with the implementation of the security plan for the tournament... That is the main reason why this meeting has been called," a source said.

The source also said that Pakistan has been tardy in implementing the security plans chalked out for the Champions Trophy.

"Even for the Asia Cup, it was on the recommendation of these ICC security consultants that private experts were hired to go and constantly monitor the Asia Cup to see if their recommendations were implemented properly," said the source.

The PCB chief operating officer Shafqat Naghmi, however, denied that it was emergency meeting and there was no threat on Pakistan hosting the mega tournament.

"It is not an emergency meeting ... It’s a scheduled one and we remain confident that the Champions Trophy will not be relocated to any other country," Naghmi said. "Basically the meeting has been convened to review the security arrangements we made for the Asia Cup and it will also go through the reports of the ICC security consultants who monitored the Asia Cup," he added.

Naghmi also said he was not concerned with reports of England having jumped into the fray as alternate venue if the Champions Trophy is relocated from Pakistan.

"Look we are not bothered by what is being reported in the media. We know that the ICC has not indicated to us that the tournament would not be held here. The ICC is and making all preparations for the event," he said. — PTI