New Zealand Turn Down Request to Tour Pakistan

New Zealand Cricket (NZC) on Tuesday (July 31) has turned down a request from Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to tour Pakistan for a short T20I series. Pakistan planned to have scheduled this tour during the latter part of 2018. However, with New Zealand turning down the request, this series will not take place! The Blackcaps are reported to have cancelled this tour owing to security concerns in Pakistan!

As per the earlier agreed schedule, New Zealand are set to play Pakistan in UAE for a full length tour which comprises three Test matches, three ODIs and three T20Is. The tour will start in October and will stretch into November as well. The Pakistan Cricket Board is reported to have hoped to convince New Zealand to play the three T20I games in Pakistan as part of this tour! On a lighter note, the fixtures for the New Zealand tour of UAE to play Pakistan are yet to be announced.

“At the end of the day it came down to following the advisory and the security reports we’d obtained. There’s no doubt they [Pakistan] are 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,” NZC chairman, Greg Barclay told media. “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,” Barclay added.

Pakistan have played almost all of their games in UAE since the terror attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in 2009. Zimbabwe in 2015 were the first team to tour Pakistan since that incident took place. However, there was a blast just outside the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore during that Zimbabwe tour of Pakistan 2015!

Two years later, in September, the World XI side which boasted players even from Sri Lanka played three T20I games in Pakistan. This year in April, West Indies sent their depleted team to tour Pakistan for a short T20I series. PCB also schedule some Pakistan Super League (PSL) games in Karachi and Lahore when they see an opportunity!

Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) refused to play a Day/Night Test in New Zealand next year as their players do not have the opportunity to play these kind of games in their domestic longer format tournaments. “We have been looking at it positively, but since our players don’t have an opportunity to play D/N matches in domestic longer version tournaments, we felt that it wouldn’t be right to play a D/N Test,” said Nizamuddin Chowdhury, BCB chief.

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