PCB chief to miss task force visit due to surgery

Lahore, Aug 19 (UNI) As the ICC task force visits the country to assess the security situation in the three venues hosting the Champions Trophy in September, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chief Nasim Ashraf will miss the inspection team due to a minor surgery.

The task force was scheduled to arrive in Islamabad tomorrow but Ashraf will be in the US for the surgery.

''The chairman (Ashraf) has undergone minor surgery and will return home within a week or so,'' PCB's media chief Mansur Sohail told the News. ''He will have to miss the visit of the task force because of it.'' Sohail said the delegation would meet senior Interior Ministry officials in Islamabad tomorrow and arrive in Karachi on August 12 to meet the city's chief of police.

The task force will be led by the ICC president David Morgan which will also include Sharad Pawar (vice-president), Haroon Lorgat (CEO), IS Bindra (principal advisor), the chief executive of the Federation of International Cricketers' Associations Tim May and representatives of ESPN-Star (the broadcasters of the event) besides the board's security consultants.

The task force was constituted after a teleconference among top ICC officials on July 24 last month.

After the teleconference it was decided that the Champions Trophy would go ahead as per the schedule in Pakistan.

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