PIETERSEN

LONDON (AP):

THE ICC urged England on Tuesday not to boycott next month's Champions Trophy, but its mission to allay fears about visiting Pakistan was dealt a blow, with Australia's players reportedly unwilling to take part in the tournament.

An International Cricket Council task force met the England and Wales Cricket Board after facing resistance in Melbourne last week from players and Cricket Australia representatives.

Protection usually reserved for visiting heads of state will be implemented during the September 12-28 tournament and ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said safety levels would be "satisfactory".

England players raised concerns about extremist violence in Pakistan with Lorgat on Sunday, echoing views in South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.

Final decision

The ECB was planning to make a final decision during a meeting later Tuesday, with indications that England, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand will at some stage make a joint announcement.

The ICC is waiting for official confirmation from the quartet before calling a board meeting to decide whether to postpone, relocate the event, or invite replacement countries.

Lorgat said security could improve after Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's resignation on Monday.

"The advice from the security advisers is that the status quo remains," Lorgat said. "If anything (Musharraf's departure) is a step in the right direction."

Despite Rawalpindi being dropped as a venue - leaving Lahore and Karachi to share all 15 matches - the Australian Cricketers' Association said the danger posed by suicide bombers could not be eased before the eight-country limited-overs tournament. Lahore has recently witnessed bomb blasts.

Open mind

"Our position is that we can't recommend the players tour Pakistan," ACA chief Paul Marsh was quoted as saying in yesterday's edition of The Australian newspaper. "Obviously, we put a position forward a few weeks ago (to the ICC) to that effect but we said we would keep an open mind with the task force, which we did.

"We heard them speak on Friday. Now we have had a chance to digest it all, our position hasn't changed."

Sri Lanka remains the standby venue, but the ICC said it would be harder to deliver a "world-class event" the longer the issue drags on.

"It is possible that you could postpone, it is possible that you could relocate," Lorgat said. "It is possible that you could add in a ninth and tenth team but at this point in time we have got no indication to the contrary.

"The tournament is going ahead. The teams have not withdrawn and we expect the best teams to participate."

Lorgat implied the event could be moved to retain the leading teams. The other nations contesting the trophy are the West Indies, India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

"The only tournament I want is with the best teams and the best players," Lorgat said. "Of course people have fears and people have concerns and rightly so because there are things happening in Pakistan.

Open minded

"But (the England players) were equally open minded and thoughtful in what they were listening to and what they were querying. But it is a process we have to go through and a difficult one."

England captain Kevin Pietersen says the next move belongs to the ECB board.

"The board is going to make a decision and we were fortunate to have a few members of the board at our meeting (Sunday), and the board knows exactly the stance of the players," Pietersen said. "It's a big decision for the board to make and the players have said whatever they needed to say."