Pakistan to send envoy to assess situation for Indian tour

``We are sending Brigadier Saeed Rafi to monitor the situation,'' Pakistan Cricket Board's chief executive Majid Khan told AFP.

He said Rafi, a member of the cricket board's council, would talk to Pakistan High Commission officials and Indian authorities before submitting his report.

Cricket officials here have played down the vandalism of the pitch at New Delhi's Ferozeshah Kotla stadium and voiced confidence the tour will go ahead.

``We are still very much interested. The tour must go on but the final decision will be taken around January 18 or 20 and we will seek advice from the government,'' Majid said.

About 25 supporters of the Shiv Sena party of firebrand Hindu leader Bal Thackeray stormed the stadium, venue of the first Test, on Wednesday night and dug up the pitch. Four were arrested.

Majid said there had been other cases of pitches being vandalised but described threats from Shiv Sena activists as serious.

``The serious aspect is threats of assaults on players and that is very concerning,'' he said.

Cricket board chairman Khalid Mahmood, who left for New Zealand Thursday for a meeting of the International Cricket Council, said he would hold talks with the Indian board's president during the gathering in Christchurch.

National coach Javed Miandad meanwhile called for the tour to be postponed following the new wave of anti-Pakistan militancy.

``The whole episode is disappointing and has raised security concerns. I think the tour should be called off temporarily,'' he told AFP, adding that the two countries should play one-day Internationals as a warm-up for the 1999 World Cup instead of a Test series.

``It is better for both the teams that they play eight to ten one-dayers in the coming months and put off the Test series for the next half of the year,'' Miandad said. He did not specify where the one-day games should be played.

He said it was distressing that the two countries had not played a Test series against each other for the last nine years on the sub-continent.

However the former captain said it was up to the Pakistan Cricket Board and the government to make the final decision on the tour.

Pakistan are due to arrive in India on January 21 for a two-Test series, the Asian Test championship opener against India and a triangular one-day series also featuring Sri Lanka.

Miandad, who is among the four Pakistani players to have toured India for three Test series in 1979-80, 1983-84 and 1986-87, said he never felt any problem playing there.

``Playing in India had never been a problem. In fact it is a dream of players to play at (Calcutta's) Eden Gardens.''