Hours after New Zealand decided to call off its cricket tour of Pakistan, a scheduled tour of England to the Asian nation was thrown into doubt with the ECB saying that it will assess the ground situation in the strife-torn country and drive on the decision of going on with the series in the next 24-48 hours.
A statement from the PCB read: “PCB and Govt of Pakistan made foolproof security arrangements for all visiting teams. The security officials with the NZ team have been satisfied with security arrangements made by the government of Pakistan throughout their stay here.”
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New Zealand decided to pull its team out of Pakistan just ahead of the first ODI after its cricket board received a security threat. England will be expected to travel to Rawalpindi in October for a couple of Twenty20 Internationals, in what will be their first visit to Pakistan since 2005.
Describing the same as per the quotes in ESPNCricinfo, an ECB spokesperson said, “We’re aware of New Zealand’s decision to pull out of the Pakistan tour due to a security alert. We are liaising with our security team who are on the ground in Pakistan to fully understand the situation. The ECB Board will then decide in the next 24-48 hours whether our planned tour should proceed.”
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The cancellation of the New Zealand tour is a huge setback to the revival of international cricket in Pakistan. Although some international cricket and Pakistan Super League (PSL) matches have already been held in the country, major Test nations are yet to travel to Pakistan for full-fledged tours.
West Indies are scheduled to travel to Pakistan later this year. Australia is also due to tour Pakistan early next year.