LONDON (Reuters)
Less than six months after its introduction, the new world Test championship is already in trouble. Under the 10-year International Cricket Council (ICC) rolling programme, each of the 10 Test-playing nations are scheduled to play each other both home and away with points awarded for series victories.

The problem lies with Pakistan, scheduled to play nine home Test series of at least two matches each over the next five years.

Pakistan borders Afghanistan, which is harbouring the Saudi-born fugitive Osama bin Laden, prime suspect in the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

Not only will Pakistan be a front-line state if any military action is launched in Afghanistan but its government is also coming under increasing internal pressure with the build-up of refugees and opposition to its support for the United States.

Already New Zealand's three-Test visit this month has been postponed indefinitely. The New Zealanders were already en route to Pakistan on September 11 but decided to fly home from Singapore.

West Indies may follow suit. They are due to tour Sri Lanka from November 1 to December 22 and Pakistan from January 20 to March 4 but the West Indies Cricket Board has now deferred making a final decision on either tour.

Instead, board president Wes Hall and chief executive Gregory Shillingford will discuss the matter with Sri Lankan and Pakistani officials at a meeting of the International Cricket Council in Kuala Lumpur from October 16-19. The meeting was switched from Lahore because of the uncertain political situation.

New Zealand Cricket Board chief executive Martin Snedden has assured Pakistan it will honour its commitment to tour Pakistan. But several prominent former Pakistan players have made it clear they are unhappy with the ICC.

Former captain Hanif Mohammad said defaulting boards should be fined at least 50 percent of the host board's projected earnings.

"I think the ICC should accept the blame of not keeping provision of unexpected happenings at the time of finalising its 10-year calendar," said Hanif. "Loopholes have been exposed in its planning.

"If the ICC claims itself to be the game's controlling authority then its responsibility doesn't end at all. It needs to reschedule New Zealand's tour so that Pakistan doesn't suffer any financial setback and receives equal treatment."

Zaheer Abbas agreed. "If the ICC can't enforce itself, what's the point of having it? The least they can do is to impose fines or sanctions on teams not binding the agreement."

The ICC maintains it has no responsibility to reschedule tours.

"The ICC set the schedule with the 10-year programme but after [that] it is the responsibility of individual countries to fulfil the fixtures," a statement said.

Former West Indies fast bowler Colin Croft has suggested one temporary solution. "My alternate proposal would be that at the very time that the West Indies should have been going to Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka should be invited to tour the Caribbean," he said.

"The reciprocal tour by Sri Lanka to the West Indies in three years' time could then be undertaken by the West Indies to that country, all things being equal then, perhaps. Things are certainly not equal now.

"Again, Pakistan should be invited here to the Caribbean to fulfil that ICC requirement of the Test-playing nations. All that would happen is that the West Indies international cricket season would run from November 2001 to maybe June 2002. What a smorgasbord of cricket that would be!"

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd