Pakistan to sue Australia if Indian tour goes ahead

Pakistan is mulling legal action against Cricket Australia if it allowed its cricket team to tour India later this month despite a series of bomb blasts in New Delhi last week.

''The PCB officials are fully convinced that the Australians, who scrapped their tour of Pakistan earlier this year and also decided to stay away from the ICC Champions Trophy in the country citing security fears, will visit India as planned in spite of the deadly bombings,'' sources close to PCB told 'The News'.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) will weigh its options and if advised by the Board's legal experts, may knock at the doors of Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to seek compensation.

A PCB official confirmed that the Board reserves the right to take legal action against teams like Australia, who have openly displayed 'double standards' on whether to tour a country or not.

The Australians are due to fly out to India on Sunday to play in a Test series that begins from October 9.

Australia's tour is under cloud because of the New Delhi bombings that left 20 dead in the Indian capital.

However, given Australia's track record, it is unlikely that they will displease the Indians by scrapping the tour. ''There is simply too much money involved when it comes to India to take any such decision,'' said the source. ''The top officials in the PCB are sure that Australia will tour India in spite of all the bombings,'' he added.

The source pointed out that the bombings in Jaipur during the inaugural season of the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL) earlier this year when several Aussie cricketers decided against leaving the country in spite of safety fears. The Australians refused to travel to Pakistan in March-April this year for a full series that included three Tests, five ODIs and a Twenty20 International. The Australians were also instrumental in forcing the ICC to postpone the Champions Trophy which was supposed to be played here from September 12-28. Pakistan have lost millions of dollars following the postponement of the home series against Australia and the Champions Trophy.

-- (UNI) -- 16SPD8.xml

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