Champions Trophy postponed for 13 months

By John Mehaffey

LONDON (Reuters) - Next month's Champions Trophy in Pakistan was postponed for 13 months on Sunday after five of the eight nations due to take part confirmed they would not send a team because of security concerns.

England, Australia, New Zealand and West Indies told a teleconference they would join South Africa who pulled out on Friday. Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka were the other teams scheduled to take part in the competition scheduled from Sept. 12-28.

International Cricket Council (ICC) president David Morgan told Reuters television the world governing body's commercial board had unanimously decided to postpone the tournament until October 2009.

"It could well still be staged in Pakistan but the board decided today that if there are doubts four, five or six months ahead of the due date of October next year then the board would seek to relocate it," he said.

Morgan said cancellation had not been an option and the board had decided against relocating the tournament to Sri Lanka.

"It was considered but dismissed very rapidly quite simply because there was no longer sufficient lead time to relocate the event in the same time frame," he said.

"Three countries had indicated to me privately ahead of South Africa's decision that they would not be able to send a squad for reasons of safety and security.

"In fact of the eight participating teams five of the teams had indicated that they would not be able to send a team to Pakistan in the current circumstances."