Cricket Australia ratifies Pakistan tour

The Cricket Australia has finally announced that the Australian cricket team will tour Pakistan twice in 2009 and 2010 in lieu of last month's postponed tour.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has also confirmed it will honour its Future Tours Program (FTP) tour to Australia in 2009-10 for three Tests, five one-day internationals and a Twenty20 international.

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Australia will play five one-day internationals and a Twenty20 international against Pakistan in April-May 2009 before returning in August-September 2010 for a three- match Test series.

The tour that was originally scheduled for March-April 2008 cancelled due to safety concerns over political unrest in Pakistan and it has been further split due to the cramped nature of the FTP.

Cricket Australia and the Pakistan Cricket Board together had been hoping to compact the matches into one tour. "That was our first option and our preferred option," CA operations manager Michael Brown quoted in Cricket Australia’s website.

"The unfortunate thing is the program's extremely busy and we've worked over the last few weeks with the PCB and reached what is the best outcome given the constraints that are available," he added.

Brown said CA would follow its normal safety and security procedures, as there can still be political unrest in Pakistan ahead of the tour next year. The rescheduled tour means Australia will have international commitments every month in the year 2009.