Friendships affected: Pakistan cricket team Skipper Babar Azam (left) and his New Zealand counterpart Tom Latham pose for a photo with the ODI series trophy at the Pindi Cricket Stadium, in Rawalpindi on 16 September[/caption]
On Friday, 17 September, New Zealand abruptly abandoned their tour of Pakistan, citing ‘security threats’ as a reason behind their decision. The Black Caps took the step moments before the start of the first One-Day International (ODI) at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. The entire saga has created a lot of chaos and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) isn’t happy with their counterparts by any stretch of the imagination.
Here is how Crick Tracker reported the immediate aftermath of the development on Sunday (19)
“In the meantime, in a recent development, it’s been learned that Five Eyes, an intelligence alliance of New Zealand, Canada, USA, UK, and Australia, played a major role in the series cancellation. The threats weren’t deemed baseless after which the New Zealand Cricket (NZC) and PCB were engaged in phone calls,” reported Crick Tracker.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Imran Khan, the Pakistan Prime Minister, also had a long discussion on the same. After a lot of talks and deliberations, the decision to abandon the tour was taken. The tour was supposed to be New Zealand’s first tour of Pakistan since 2003.
No possible to go into details
Earlier, New Zealand PM Ardern said that safety and security of the players should be of top-most priority above anything and everything. Grant Robertson, the country’s Deputy Prime Minister, supported NZC over their call of withdrawing from the tour.
“As is normal in situations like this, it is not possible or responsible to go into detail around the nature of these threats, but it was credible and had to be taken seriously. We support the decision made by NZ Cricket.
“They did so on the basis of security assessments, including by their own security advisors on the ground. There was a credible security threat and NZ Cricket has responded appropriately,” the Deputy Prime Minister was quoted as saying in The International News.
ICC asked to intervene
On Saturday (18), the New Zealand cricketers returned back to their home country. PCB Chief Executive Wasim Khan said that chartered flights were arranged for the players. Ramiz Raja, the new PCB Chairman, was gutted after the tour couldn’t take place.
Former Pakistan cricketer Inzamam-ul-Haq asked the International Cricket Council (ICC) to delve deep into the matter. The veteran also slammed the Kiwis, saying that they shouldn’t have ended their tour hastily.