New Zealand Cricket has rejected Pakistan’s request to play a T20 international series in the country later this year, local media reported on Tuesday.
The Blackcaps will face Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates in October in three tests, three one day internationals and three Twenty 20 matches.
And, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) hoped to convince the foreign team to tour to Pakistan for the first time in the 15 years. But this is not going to be happening.
“At the end of the day, it came down to following the advisory and the security reports we’d obtained.” NZ Cricket chairman Greg Barclay told NEWSHUB.
“There’s no doubt they (Pakistan Cricket Board) 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,” Barclay continued.
“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.”
New Zealand last came to Pakistan in 2003, but the team had to go back without completing their tour after a bomb exploded outside the hotel in Karachi.
Pakistan have played most of their ‘home’ games in the UAE since terror attack on Sri Lankan team in Lahore in 2009.
Barclay, responding to a question regarding visiting Pakistan, said: “I think that probably would have been difficult for a variety of reasons. We, fortunately, didn’t get to the point where we had to have those discussions.”
“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.
“But all circumstances considered, we just decided circumstances weren’t right for us to tour at the moment.”
After the attack on Sri Lankan team, West Indies became the first major team to visit Pakistan in April 2017 in an effort to revive international cricket.
The cricket-loving country also safely hosted the final of Pakistan Super League 2017 in Lahore, and the final three matches of the 2018 edition of the tournament. The security measures during the matches were widely praised by the foreign visiting teams.
