The security situation in Pakistan has led the West Indies to call off the proposed tour

Image courtesy of: Zimbio

The West Indies have opted not to take up the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) offer of touring the country in March, according to multiple sources.

The West Indies were in discussions with Pakistan about playing a two-match Twenty20 series in mid-March, but it seems as if negotiations have fallen through after the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) received security advice from the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA).

While the West Indies have also cancelled a security recce of Pakistan, the two boards are still in talks about playing two Twenty20 Internationals in Florida on March 19 and 20.

It has been reported that earlier this week, the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA) wrote to FICA to ask them about the security situation in Pakistan.

Responding to WIPA’s request, FICA gave them a report from their security consultants, Eastern Star International, who also provide security for numerous cricket boards, including Cricket Australia, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and New Zealand Cricket (NZC).

In the report, it said that Pakistan is still “at an extremely elevated state” and that “an acceptable level of participant security and safety cannot be expected or guaranteed”.

The West Indies are now the third team to reject a tour of Pakistan in the last two years after Ireland and Sri Lanka.

Zimbabwe have been the only Full Member nation to tour Pakistan ever since the Sri Lankan team’s bus was attacked by armed militants in March 2009.