A British newspaper reports Al Qaeda planned to attack Australian and England cricketers.
Last Update: Monday, October 9, 2006. 8:19am (AEST)

Al Qaeda planned Ashes attack: report

The former chairman of Cricket Australia, Bob Merriman, says he knew nothing of a plot to attack the Australian and English teams during last year's Ashes tour.

It has been alleged the men who bombed the public transport system in London last year had originally planned to target cricketers from the two countries.

An unnamed friend of one of the four bombers has told The Sunday Times in Britain that the bombers were plotting to kill the players using sarin gas inside their change rooms.

The paper says the order was allegedly made by Al Qaeda at a terrorist training camp in Kashmir.

The plot is understood to have been stopped because one of the bombers was a cricket fan.

Mr Merriman says the team was happy with security arrangements on the tour.

"Clearly after all the arrangements were put in place after the July bombings, that Ricky Ponting and the team were comfortable enough to stay there and did in fact stay in London," he said.

"We were very confident that we were in a safe situation."

The Australian Cricketers Association says it is concerned by the reports and chief executive Paul Marsh says the claims will be investigated.

"We're still trying to find out how substantial the claims are but I guess what it does show is that there is an ever-present threat there and to everybody and Australian cricketers," he said.

Australian cricketer Jason Gillespie says he is disappointed to hear about the reported terrorist plot.

Gillespie was heavily criticised when he threatened to abandon the tour because of warnings linked to Al Qaeda.

"It's just very disappointing that people think that these sorts of plots and things are the answer to the world's problems and to hear what was going to go on," he said.

"Obviously it's never nice to hear these sorts of things and it was again just extremely disappointing and I suppose you could say a little bit nerve-wracking."

Claims questioned

But terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna has questioned some of the claims made by the source of the report.

He says Islamic terrorist groups have not been able to produce sarin gas in the past.

"Al Qaeda is certainly interested, was interested in developing sarin gas but we haven't seen capability on the part of Al Qaeda to manufacture sarin gas," he said.