After cancelling their recent tour to Pakistan under unfortunate circumstances, New Zealand Cricket (NZC) is back in talks with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to reschedule the tour before the end of this Future Tour Programme, which has to end in 2023.
New Zealand cricket team was recently in Pakistan and was supposed to play 3 ODIs and 5 T20 international games, but on the day the first ODI was to be played, the Blackcaps refused to play the game because of security concerns.
A day before the first ODI, the New Zealand government got intelligence inputs that there might have been a security threat to the NZ touring party in Pakistan, and they swung into action straightaway, asking NZC to pull the team out of the tour.
On the directions of NZC, the New Zealand players didn’t even leave their hotel to reach the ground, and it was only a day after the series was cancelled that they were taken to the airport under immense security as they flew out of the country.
Pakistan Cricket Board was not amused with New Zealand’s decision
PCB was seriously unhappy with the way it all panned out, as they were of the view that NZC should have shared the details of the threat with them and should not have taken any decision on their own.
However, the two boards are having constructive dialogue again as the PCB chairman Ramiz Raja recently said that the good news about the rescheduling of the tour will be announced soon. It is believed that the tour might be rescheduled in November 2022.
Pakistan Cricket team, at this stage, is preparing to move to the UAE soon where they will take part in the T20 World Cup. Pakistan is in a tough group where they will not only be facing arch-rivals India, but will also be facing New Zealand. However, given the fact that the Pakistani players are familiar with UAE conditions, they are being backed to make it to the knockouts.
