Karachi

Pakistan on Wednesday changed venues for two of its one-day international cricket matches against South Africa ahead of a tour next month, officials said. The Pakistan Cricket Board cited a lack of cricket facilities in Peshawar and Rawalpindi as reasons for the change, but sources inside the governing body said the fragile security situation in both cities was the main reason.

The Pakistan Cricket Board confirmed former Australian fast bowler Geoff Lawson as their new cricket coach on Monday. Board chairperson Nasim Ashraf told a news conference that Lawson had been preferred over two other short-listed candidates, Dav Whatmore and Richard Done.

A cyclone hit the coast of Pakistan on Tuesday, dumping torrential rain over a thinly populated region days after about 230 people were killed when a storm lashed the country’s biggest city, Karachi. Authorities in Pakistan and neighbouring India have evacuated thousands of people from low-lying areas after weekend storms and flooding killed nearly 400 people.

More than 200 people were killed as torrential rain and thunderstorms lashed the Pakistani port city of Karachi on Sunday, destroying hundreds of homes and causing widespread power outages. Gale-force winds uprooted trees and power pylons and blew down roofs and walls, crushing and electrocuting scores of victims.

The India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh cricket boards will discuss the possibility of reducing the duration of the 2011 Cricket World Cup. Officials from the four South Asian Test-playing nations, who will co-host the next World Cup, will meet in Pakistan on June 18, a senior Pakistan Cricket Board official said.

A robber who tried to hold up a bank using a baby doll and a blood pressure pump was in custody on Wednesday after his heist failed, a Pakistani newspaper reported. The 25-year-old burst into the bank in Karachi on Monday brandishing the doll, which he claimed was a bomb, and the pump, which he said was a hand grenade.

Former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq on Friday hit back at an official report that described him as a ”dictator” and blamed him for the team’s disastrous World Cup showing. The Pakistan Cricket Board inquiry concluded that Inzamam’s attitude was ”haughty and that of a dictator” and said he should have been removed as captain before the World Cup.

Eighteen people were killed in Karachi on Saturday in clashes between pro-government and opposition activists over the arrival of the country’s suspended top judge to rally support for his cause. Opposition leaders said Karachi was under siege by supporters of the pro-government Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

A Pakistani investigator on Tuesday said that a probe into the cause of death of national cricket coach Bob Woolmer was still inconclusive. Woolmer (58) was found dead in his Jamaican hotel room on March 18, the day after Pakistan crashed out of the World Cup by losing to minnows Ireland.

Angry fans told Pakistani cricketers to ”go to hell” as they returned home on Wednesday, still reeling from the murder of coach Bob Woolmer and their humiliating World Cup exit. ”Why have you come back?” one fan shouted as the players were protected by dozens of uniformed police.

Australian umpire Darrell Hair has withdrawn his racial discrimination case against Pakistan, the country’s cricket board said on Monday. ”We have been informed that Hair has withdrawn his case of racial discrimination against us and it doesn’t surprises us because he couldn’t sue us for what happened to him,” Pakistan Cricket Board director of operations Salim Altaf said.

Pakistani all-rounder Shahid Afridi has been charged by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for conduct unbecoming after an incident during the first one-day international against South Africa. The ICC said on its website on Thursday that the charge was brought by chief executive Malcolm Speed for conduct that could bring players and officials or the game of cricket into disrepute.