Daily Times

LAHORE: The New Zealand Cricket Board has declined the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) invitation to the Black Caps to play a three-match Twenty20 series in Pakistan, New Zealand’s NewsHub service reported on Tuesday. The Kiwis are set to play three Tests, three one-day internationals and three T20 matches against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in October 2018. The PCB, however, had attempted to convince NZ Cricket to hold the T20s in Pakistan but the foreign cricket board declined, saying the “circumstances weren’t right” for the team. NZ Cricket Chairman Greg Barclay was quoted as saying that although the board was aware that its decision would be “disappointing” for the PCB, they had opted against it. “At the end of the day, it came down to following the advisory and the security reports we’d obtained,”
he said.

“There’s no doubt the PCB is disappointed. I think they saw a tour by a country like New Zealand as being a great precedent for them to start to build an international programme back in Pakistan,” Barclay added. “So they’re disappointed but they’re good guys, we get on really well with Pakistan, and I think they’re fully accepting of the decision that we’ve reached.” He said the board had not gotten to a point where it would have had to discuss the tour with the players, and added that the discussion, if it would have taken place, “would have
been difficult for a variety of reasons.”

Since the terror attack on the Sri Lanka team bus in 2009, Pakistan have played most of their home games in the UAE. Zimbabwe broke the deadlock in May 2015 when they toured for a short limited-overs series, which was marred by a blast near the Gaddafi Stadium. A World XI side led by Faf du Plessis, comprising a number of current internationals toured the country for three T20Is in September 2017. In April this year, a depleted West Indies squad also toured Pakistan for three T20Is in as many days. In between, Lahore and Karachi have hosted a few PSL matches.

New Zealand last toured Pakistan in 2003, just a year after a suicide bombing outside their team hotel in Karachi had cut their tour short. “I can’t comment on the decision process that the West Indies went through, perhaps some of the timings may have been different as well,” Barclay said of West Indies’ decision to tour. “I just know that we went through a very thorough process and I’m comfortable with the decision that we got to.

“We’re very sympathetic to the plight they find themselves in, we’re a member of the ICC, we’re very aware that the ICC are trying to facilitate more international cricket in Pakistan and we’re very supportive of that.” Although they were given three months to analyse the situation, NZC had not sent any of their representatives to Pakistan to conduct any personal checks.

Published in Daily Times, August 1^st 2018.