The ICC Champions Trophy, scheduled to be held in Pakistan in September this year, is in grave danger of being moved out to an alternate venue even though the Asia Cup, seen as a warm-up to run the rule on the security measures, went off quite smoothly.

In the last two days, Pakistan has experienced blasts in Islamabad and Peshawar, apart from serial blasts in Karachi, which should put the already apprehensive boards such as Cricket Australia, New Zealand Cricket and the England Cricket Board further on the backfoot.

The three countries had expressed fears over touring Pakistan for the ICC tournament, citing security concerns, but had recently agreed to go by the renewed security preparations that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) assured would be made available to them before and during the tournament. In fact, these boards had hired an Australia-based private security firm to check on the measures, who in turn sent a representative, Reg Dickson, to Karachi to assess the situation.

However, four days after Dickson left, Karachi was witness to serial blasts in various parts of the city, following which these cricket boards are likely to reconsider the situation strongly once again. While PCB chairman Dr Naseem Ashraf remained unavailable for comment, PCB officials who didn’t want to be named said that “something like this was totally unexpected,” further adding how the Pakistan board will now find it “very difficult” to explain the situation to other board members.

Reacting to the blasts, the ICC released a strong statement saying that they would not compromise on the safety and security of any individual at one of its tournaments. “If it is not appropriate to play in any country then we will not do so,” the governing body’s CEO Haroon Lorgat said.

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