ICC can’t guarantee players’ safety

DUBAI: Cricketers were warned on Sunday that their security couldn’t be guaranteed in Pakistan during September’s Champions Trophy with the ICC delaying a final decision on the tournament venue until later this week.“If it was up to player representatives, they would prefer not to be in Pakistan because of the environmental or external risks,” ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat told The Associated Press.“They have got concerns because no guarantees, as far as safety and security are concerned, can be given by the PCB (Pakistan Cricket Board), the ICC or security consultants.“We can do everything in our power to secure and safeguard officials, but we can never issue guarantees.”Lorgat said he knew of no threats to the September 11-28 tournament. However, he acknowledged that overcoming the perception of danger will be difficult before the ICC executive board delivers a definite decision within the next 72 hours on whether to move the One-day International tournament to an alternate host.Lorgat said Sunday’s briefing by the ICC’s security consultants stressed “great satisfaction” about the measures implemented by Pakistan at the recently completed Asia Cup.“But there are still concerns stemming out of the environmental and external factors — those issues are largely beyond our control,” Lorgat said.“Those external factors create the perception around the security and it is really difficult to deal with those perceptions ... but there is no specific threat to any sport, particularly cricket.”