By Hassaan Q- Staff Writer for DesiGupShup.com

What was to be, what is, and what will be? This year has been very bleak for cricket in Pakistan (no thanks to the political situation), which actually tends to help the country out in times of need.

To sum up the facts of what exactly happened to the Champions Trophy ‘08 that was supposed to be held in Pakistan, here is a timeline brought to you by cricinfo.com

Timeline

May 1, 2006 – The ICC awards the 2008 Champions Trophy to Pakistan

March 11, 2008 – Australia postpone their tour to Pakistan over security fears

March 19 – ICC says Sri Lanka will be the alternate venue

June 18 – Official launch of Champions Trophy June 19 – Ricky Ponting says Australian players are uneasy with touring Pakistan

July 6 – Pakistan successfully stages six-nation Asia Cup

July 24 – ICC keeps Champions Trophy in Pakistan after board meeting, high-level task force appointed

July 24 to 26 – Players lobbies step up pressure to pull out; Kevin Pietersen urges ECB to make Champions Trophy decision; Graeme Smith has ‘major concerns’

Aug 10 – ICC task team travels to Pakistan to assess security

Aug 12 – ICC drops Rawalpindi as one of the venues

Aug 14 to 17 – Geoff Lawson deployed by ICC to convince Australia and New Zealand; the task force, along with Lawson, meet Australian officials; New Zealand and Australian players’ associations remain unconvinced; ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat briefs England team

Aug 19 – Top ICC officials meet in Dubai, announce teleconference for

August 24 Aug 22 – South Africa withdraw from tournament

Aug 24 – ICC postpones trophy until next year, Pakistan keep hosting rights

For a quick 101 on the unknown names: ICC=International Cricket Council, Ricky Ponting-Captain of the Australian team, Kevin Pietersen-South African ex-pat who is now Captain of the England team, ECB=England and Wales Cricket Board, Graeme Smith-Captain of the South African team, Geoff Lawson-Coach of Team Pakistan (he is an Australian).

Now that the facts are out of the way, it is now time for the opinion.

This is probably the worst thing that could have happened to Pakistan, because I feel the spirit of the game has been tarnished by other issues when it does not have to be. Security is and always will be an issue everywhere in the world, not just in Pakistan. A large point to take into consideration is that sport has never been a target of terrorism or at least it has never been proven to be. Seeing that Australia already pulled out of a bi-lateral series tour that was supposed to be held in March-April of 2008, this was even more catastrophic for Pakistan.

Australia have agreed to come for a full tour having the Test series in March of next year and the ODI series the following year. The Asia Cup was held in July in Pakistan with six participating nations without so much as a hitch in security. However the rest of the non-Asian bloc countries’ players still feared for their safety. They were guaranteed security in the same capacity that is given to visiting heads of state! However all the players were skeptical about whether or not the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) would be able to pull off these security measures. Seeing as how the decision has been made to postpone it to September of 2009, there is not much we can about it. The PCB stood to make US$7 million from the postponed Australia series and the Champions Trophy.

At this point in time since this year’s cricketing calendar was pretty empty for Pakistan due to the postponement of these two tournaments, the PCB is trying to fill in the gap with a tri-series in South Africa with the third country being Sri Lanka. Everyone is just awaiting the news on whether or not this little tournament will emerge or not so that we can see Team Pakistan in some real action!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 4th, 2008 at 7:21 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.