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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 September 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."

Pakistan has been hit by a series of suicide bomb attacks in the past year. In the latest incident last Thursday, 67 people were killed in a suicide bombing outside a defence industry complex 30 kms northwest of Islamabad.

TWO OPTIONS

Pakistan Cricket Board chief operating officer Shafqat Naghmi told a news conference in Islamabad that the host nation had faced two options.

"It was either relocating to Sri Lanka or the second option was to keep the right to host the tournament by agreeing to its postponement," he said.

"The first option was not acceptable to us, as then we would lose our right to host the tournament, we would have also lose the money assured to us as the host country. So ultimately it was decided that the tournament be rescheduled."

As for the impact of the postponement on Pakistan, Naghmi said: "Cricket is not going to die here. I am sure of that.

"We are passing through a difficult phase but it is not going to last forever."

England and Wales Cricket Board chairman Giles Clarke welcomed the postponement.

"The ECB made it clear to (the) ICC...last week that ECB had a duty of care for England players and officials as well as a desire to ensure the interests of the media and spectators were not compromised," he said in a statement.

"The ECB explained their reservations and security concerns about staging the tournament in the aftermath of the resignation of the Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf last Monday.

"These concerns were shared by four other competing countries."

(Source: Reuters)