“Anything could happen tomorrow, things change very quickly in the world right at the moment,” Ponting told reporters in Canberra.

“Cricket Australia and the government will continue to be in touch. Cricket Australia will keep the players and the players association in the loop on a daily, if not hourly basis,” he added.

CA had declared on Tuesday that the tour would go ahead as scheduled despite Saturday’s serial blasts in New Delhi.

Ponting said no player had so far expressed any apprehensions about touring India but the final call on the matter will come down to what the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s assessment of the situation.

“As a group we haven’t been together. I’m not sure if Cricket Australia have fielded any calls from individual players or families but that wouldn’t be unusual if that was the case,” he said.

Pak still upset

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s anger over Australia’s decision to proceed with their India tour was so seething that a PCB official called the Aussies “lily-livered cowards”, according to a report.

“To talk simply of double-standards would be to understate what we feel. My personal view is that your people are a bunch of lily-livered cowards,” a senior PCB official was quoted as saying by The Australian.

“You use one set of rules when it comes to poor Pakistan and another when it comes to India and the rich pickings to be made from the Board of Control for Cricket in India and playing in the Indian Premier League,” he fumed.

PCB chief operating officer Shafqat Naghmi had also accused Cricket Australia of “double standards” by deciding to proceed with the India tour while cancelling their Test tour to Pakistan early this year and objecting to Champions Trophy due to security reasons. “I think if Australia tour India it will only highlight their double standards on security issues,” Naghmi had said.

But Cricket Australia and Australian Cricketers’ Association rubbished such accusations, saying the security situations in India and Pakistan were different.

CA rubbishes allegations

“We rely on the independent people to give us the advice and it is nothing about India or Pakistan over this, it is about the situation in any given country. The threat assessment for India has been considerably lower than that of Pakistan,” a CA spokesman said.

“I’ve been in touch with a couple of players and they just wanted to know what the process was. There’s no panic within the group. There’s just some general concern,” he added.

He said the decision not to tour Pakistan and to go to India was based on the available security information.

“Dispassionately we have received different information on those different countries,” the spokesman said.

CA general manager Michael Brown also rubbished Pakistan Cricket Board’s allegations. “The only reasons we can’t play and participate is for security reasons and we’ll keep monitoring those as time goes by,” Brown said.

There were also conflicting reports in Australian media over PCB’s threat to take legal recourse on this matter. The Australian said the PCB was contemplating suing CA if it goes ahead with next month’s tour of India while Sydney Morning Herald reported the denial of such a move.