Johannesburg, Mar. 4 : Cricket Australia (CA) has indicated that next year''s scheduled cricket Tests between Australia and Pakistan could be held in England. The discussions had been going on for several weeks before Tuesday's terror attack in Lahore.

"Pakistan has accepted for some time that we aren't able to visit because of the safety and security concerns in that nation. Pakistan has started the discussion about playing three Test matches at neutral venues in England in 2010," CA spokesman Peter Young said.

After immediate cancellation of the Sri Lankan Test tour there are now fears that Pakistan will not host international teams for as long as a generation, The Daily Telegraph reports.

"It''s a work in progress, the PCB is responsible for coming up with the arrangements, but in principle we''ve been comfortable and (we''re) talking with them. But it is very early days," Young said.

One of the strong merits of the nation was expatriate Pakistan population in the northern England.

"One of the downsides to neutral venues is quite often you don''t get people turning up at the stadium - because wherever you are, the locals don''t have a home-team interest," he said.

"But part of the theory is that there are a significant number of expatriate Pakistanis who, with appropriate marketing, might be encouraged to attend these games. Pakistan would still have kind-of a de facto home crowd advantage," Young added.

Britain''s Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe has said in the wake of the Lahore attack that England could act as a temporary home for the Pakistan team.

Pakistan is due to "host" Australia for five one-dayers and a Twenty20 from late April in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the Middle East.

CA would send a pre-inspection tour party to the venues this week to look at safety and security. (ANI)