Cricket Australia said Sunday it hoped the security situation in Pakistan would calm down so that international cricket could again be played there, following a massive bomb blast in Islamabad.
At least 60 people were killed and 200 others were injured in the truck bombing Saturday night at the Pakistani capital's Marriott Hotel, where rescuers were combing through the debris for possible survivors.
"Our reaction is that it's terribly sad and tragic news," CA public affairs manager Peter Young told Australian Associated Press.
"We enjoy playing against them and we have tours coming up there next year of course," he said. "Everyone is praying quite fervently that the domestic situation there settles down so people can live their life in peace and hopefully we can start playing cricket there again."
Australia was one of the nations that declined to tour Pakistan this month for the International Cricket Council's Champions Trophy on security grounds, which led to the tournament being put off by a year.
Australia also refused to undertake a Test tour of Pakistan last March-April over similar fears, instead agreeing to split it in two parts in 2009 and again in 2010.
"We do have cricket scheduled in Pakistan in 2009 and as always we'll do a pre-tour assessment before we travel there," Young said. CA did decide to proceed with next month's tour of India even after a series of deadly bomb attacks in New Delhi, prompting criticism from Pakistani officials. As for the Champions Trophy, Young said the ICC was "trying to come up with dates and venues for that."
"Of course, we were due to be there today. We would have been in Pakistan had the originally scheduled dates gone ahead," he said.
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