KARACHI: Pakistan and India might be traditional rivals in many ways but yesterday they got together to force the International Cricket Council (ICC) and its member countries to put off a decision to relocate the Champions Trophy to Sri Lanka.

The ICC agreed to postpone the tournament until October next year after a boycott threat by Pakistan and India at yesterday's teleconference.

The ICC executive board decided to postpone the eight-nation tournament, which was to be held from September 12 after the refusal of South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and England to tour Pakistan because of security concerns.

"The ICC and these four countries were keen on relocating the tournament but India threatened a boycott as did Pakistan. India also took the stand that it would not accept the relocation on any flimsy grounds.

India said that since Pakistan and its government were offering security assurances the event should not be moved from there," a senior PCB official told MiD DAY.

He said in fact the India and Bangladesh had firmly supported Pakistan throughout over security issues and only softened its stance after Pakistan agreed to the postponement till next year provided it would host the event.

"There is no doubt that the ICC would have faced a tricky situation if it had tried to relocate the event and this could have even led to a divide as the Asian countries were not happy with some of the objections being raised by the players of the four countries not wanting to tour Pakistan," the official said.

The decision to postpone the Champions Trophy didn't come as a surprise to the Pakistan board.

"We were expecting this when the ICC refused to listen to our request to put off a decision on the tournament for a week. Our sports ministry had said they needed some time to convince the foreign missions of the countries having security concerns that it was safe to play in Pakistan.
 
But the ICC didn't agree saying it couldn't delay a decision any longer," Shafqat Naghmi, a senior official of the board said.