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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The International Cricket Council said Tuesday to our sports news reporters that it will continue to monitor the security situation in Pakistan before the ICC Champions Trophy in September 2009.

"Security would have to be assessed on an ongoing basis anyway as we move towards the ICC Champions Trophy in 2009. We would have done that had India toured Pakistan," ICC spokesman Sami-ul-Hasan told our sports news reporter.

India canceled its planned tour of Pakistan following deadly terrorist attacks in Mumbai linked to Pakistan extremists.

Other teams have also refused to tour Pakistan this year due to security concerns. Australia postponed its scheduled tour in March while the ICC Champions Trophy was deferred for a year after five teams — Australia, England, South Africa, New Zealand and the West Indies expressed reservations about security.

At October's ICC executive board meeting, Pakistan was retained as the venue for next year's ICC Champions Trophy to be staged between Sept.24-Oct. 5. The event has been reduced to 12 days and is most likely to be staged in one city.

"In case of concerns, it was always agreed the matter could be addressed by the ICC Board as the timing of the event drew closer.The next scheduled ICC Board meeting is due to take place in Perth, Australia on Jan. 31- Feb. 1," ul-Hasan said.

"The event remains in Pakistan unless the ICC Board decides otherwise and so it is premature to speculate on that issue at this stage," he added.

The ICC said it would separately be assessing security arrangements for match officials.

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India should not postpone Pak tour on security concerns: Sohail, Kamran

Updated at: 1310 PST, Saturday, November 29, 2008 KARACHI: Pakistani cricketers Sohail Tanvi and Kamran Akmal have reached back home from Mumbai after postponement of Champions League. Talking to media at airport here Tanvir said that India and Pakistan must be realistic in their approaches and instead of raising security concerns and boycotting to play in each other countries, they must know both are equally affected terror victim.” Both the cricketers were few miles away from Taj hotel when the menace took place on Wednesday night and after spending some anxious moments there, both have now come back home via Bahrain. Kamran and Akmal were supposed to represent Rajasthan Royals in the December 3-10 Champions Trophy but the Twenty20 extravaganza was put off due to the terror strikes.