ICC has recruited Geoff Lawson, the Pakistan coach, to try and ensure that the best players turn up to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy, to be held in September in Lahore and Karachi.

Lawson, who has been a convincing international teams to play in Pakistan, left for Australia in the early hours of the morning. He will also visit New Zealand and will address concerns of the two countries whose players have been most anxious over Pakistan visit.

“The ICC made the request about ten days ago,” Mansoor Suhail, a PCB spokesman, told Cricinfo. “He has been living here and he is Australian so it is a good thing. Lawson will go meet players and tell them what it is like here.”

Haroon Lorgat, chief executive ICC, called the Lawson move had been a spontaneous one. “Geoff Lawson offered to join us. He lives in Lahore so he has a better sense of what is transpiring in Pakistan. He has decided to join us and go and talk to those players, member boards and convey his confidence to those people. It wasn’t an invitation from the task force, it was just some people discussing it personally and thought it might be worthwhile him going.”

The trip will be funded by the ICC’s task force, which is currently involved in the assessment of venues and security arrangements in Pakistan ahead of the tournament. “It is a very logical thing to do,” Suhail said. “They are funding the trip and hopefully it will assuage the concerns of leading players and convince them to come here.” Haroon Lorgat, the ICC president, added that the task force would visit Australia, New Zealand and England in an attempt to convince the players to tour Pakistan.

The task force has taken considerable input from Lawson as well as David Dwyer, the team trainer and another Australian, during their time in Lahore. Lawson had recently showed his delight publically over the positive voices coming from Australia and New Zealand. This was after umpire Simon Taufel statement expressing his willingness to tour and Ian Chappell, the former Australian captain’s remarks supporting the games in Pakistan.

Following the ICC board’s decision last month to go ahead with the tournament in Pakistan, players’ associations in Australia, England, New Zealand and South Africa had raised concerns over the security situation. They even had raised a warning of a possible boycott. Similar doubts were echoed by international captains Graeme Smith, Kevin Pietersen and Ricky Ponting. Pietersen, even demanded a decision from the ECB on the gameplan in Pakistan. On Monday, Daniel Vettori had demanded New Zealand Cricket to take a final call on touring.

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