New Zealand Cricket Team Not Ready to Play in Pakistan, Tour Canceled Just Before the Match

The New Zealand cricket team, which came to Pakistan to play a limited over series in Pakistan for the T20 World Cup to be held in UAE and Oman this year, has canceled the current tour. The ODI series between New Zealand and Pakistan was to begin today, but New Zealand refused to play due to security reasons. The Kiwi team was touring Pakistan for 18 years. After this incident, now an atmosphere of fear can also be created in the minds of teams touring Pakistan in the future.

A three-match ODI and five-match T20 series were to be played between Pakistan and New Zealand. In this tour of New Zealand, the ODI series in Rawalpindi and the T20 series were to be held at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. In the first ODI between the two teams, when 20 minutes were left, then the news of the disturbance came to the fore. After this, the players were instructed to stay in hotel rooms instead of reaching the stadium. Apart from this, cricket fans were also not allowed to enter the stadium.

New Zealand Cricket Team Official Tweet

After the cancellation of this tour, arrangements will be made to bring back the Kiwi players from Pakistan soon. David White, chief executive of New Zealand Cricket, said that following the advice we have received from our government, it was not possible to continue the tour. “I think it would have come as a blow to the PCB, who is a wonderful host, but the safety of the players is of paramount importance to us and we believe that was the only option we had,” he said.

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The PCB said in its statement, ‘The Pakistan Cricket Board and the Government of Pakistan make elaborate security arrangements for all the visiting teams. We also assured New Zealand Cricket about it. He said, “Prime Minister of Pakistan spoke to the Prime Minister of New Zealand on a personal level and told her that we have the best intelligence system in the world and there is no security threat of any kind to the visiting team.” The PCB said that the security officials accompanying the New Zealand team were also satisfied with the security arrangements here.