ICC likely to scrap Champions Trophy venue

Lahore, Aug 12 (UNI) The International Cricket Council (ICC) is all set to delay the start of next month's Champions Trophy by one day and has scrapped Rawalpindi as one of the three venues following security advice.

The eight-team tournament was due to start on September 11, the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on America in 2001.

It is now likely to start the following day.

Rawalpindi, which adjoins the capital city of Islamabad, has been dropped as a venue, which means all the trophy matches will have to be played in the southern port city of Karachi and Lahore.

The announcements were made after an ICC taskforce visited Islamabad and Lahore to assess security arrangements for the event.

''There was advice that we received from the security consultants that it might be better not to start the competition from the 11th and move to the 12th,'' ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said.

''We have decided to reduce the Champions Trophy to two venues but the event will be played in Pakistan,'' he added.

Earlier, Lorgat had said security could not be assessed at Rawalpindi as it did not host any matches in the recent Asia Cup.

''That did not provide us with the oppertunity to test the security arrangements. We would explore only the possibilities of Lahore and Karachi.'' UNI XC CS AB BST1908