The cloud of doubts over organisation of the Champions Trophy in the troubled country finally seems to have dispersed with the International Cricket Council all set to launch the logo.
KARACHI: The cloud of doubts over organisation of the Champions Trophy in the troubled country finally seems to have dispersed with the International Cricket Council all set to officially launch the logo and announce the sponsors of the tournament on June 18 in Lahore.
According to sources in the Pakistan Cricket Board, a high powered delegation of the ICC is due to reach Lahore on June 16 for the ceremony.
Pakistani cities of Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi are due to host the matches from September 11.
The decision by the ICC to hold the logo launching ceremony and release details of the tournament sponsors basically means they have decided that Pakistan would be the host country for the event.
Earlier, due to uncertain security situation in Pakistan the ICC had kept Sri Lanka as a standby venue for the Champions Trophy.
More importantly Pakistan was to be confirmed as the final host at the executive board meeting of the ICC early next month.
"What has happened is that after the ICC delegation, that included security experts, recently visited Pakistan their report was given out to the member countries. And the experts did express some reservations over the plan for the tournament," one source said.
"Their main reservation was that although all the security and police officials had assured them during meetings in Pakistan that everything would be done to ensure state level security for the teams, how it would practically work was not clear."
"The ICC experts asked the board to get these things clarified from their government and that is why on Monday top board officials met with high ranking security and police officials and interior ministry official, Rehman Malik," he said.
Other sources say that although the ICC is content Pakistan will host the event peacefully but they are bracing themselves for some last minute concerns from Australia and New Zealand in particular.
"Australia is one of the main countries which is still raising questions about security situation in Pakistan," another source stated.
The source didn't rule out the possibility of the PCB and ICC facing last minute problems over Rawalpindi stadium (which is under complete renovation) being ready to host the matches as the work was progressing slowly.
The ICC has already appointed a media representative in Pakistan, a senior journalist, Aliya Rasheed to head their preparations for the event in the country.
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