Karachi, Dec 3 : Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Ijaz Butt will leave for Colombo tomorrow to attend a meeting of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC).

Butt, a former Pakistan Test opener, will take over as the ACC chief in place of former PCB chairman Nasim Ashraf during the meeting.

During his visit, Butt will meet Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Shashank Manohar to discuss the fate of the forthcoming home series against India scheduled for January-February next year.

The series is in serious doubt following last week''s killings in Mumbai and India''s decision to raise the finger of suspicion at Pakistan.

While the Mumbai attacks have thrown India’s right to the 2011 World Cup in serious doubts, former BCCI president Sharad Pawar has dismissed speculation that the tournament was under threat.

Speaking with a private news-channel, Pawar said, “There is still some time for that and I am confident our government will take corrective actions.”

Pawar, who is also the Union Agriculture Minister in the Indian government, said, following the Mumbai attacks, the security measures would become even tougher so that no such incidents get repeated.

Melbourne, Dec. 3 : Australian cricket team physiotherapist Alex Kountouris has dismissed speculation that captain Ricky Ponting''s career could be cut short by a wrist injury.

Ponting was visiting his surgeon Greg Hoy in Melbourne on Thursday for assessment of his right wrist, after he had a screw inserted in July to repair tissue and tendon damage.

The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Kountouris as saying that the appointment had been planned six weeks ago. He said the pain Ponting was experiencing was standard after any type of surgery and was not severe enough to have caused him to miss a training session let alone consider being rested from any matches.

Sydney, Dec. 3 : The Times, one of Britain''s most respected newspapers, has extraordinarily referred to the Australian cricket team as "the weasels of international sport".

In article for the paper, Simon Barnes attacked the Aussies during an impassioned plea to the England players not to duck out of their resumed tour of India in the wake of the Mumbai terror attack.

Lahore, Dec. 3 : Pakistan cricket captain Shoaib Malik has said that the Indian cricket team’s tour of his country in January and February next year should go ahead, saying "cricket diplomacy" would ease existing tensions between the neighbors.

"If we play cricket matches, then the people of both countries will have a chance to divert their attention and the situation will definitely improve. Cricket diplomacy has helped in the past as well in the same manner," The News quoted Malik as saying.

Adelaide, Dec. 2 : Australian captain Ricky Ponting believes that inexperience in Australian conditions, especially at Perth, might count against the South Africans when undertake the tour Down Under.

"On paper, it''s a very good attack. But it''s an attack that hasn''t played in Australia. We all know that it''s pretty easy to get carried away with conditions in Perth if you haven''t played there before," The Age quoted Ponting, as saying.