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In a short public statement, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern stated that the New Zealand government supports the cancellation because “player safety must be the most important thing.”
On Saturday, officials of the New Zealand cricket team cast a veil of mystery over security threats, which forced them to abruptly cancel their tour in Pakistan.
According to Pakistan’s Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told Pakistan’s leader Imran Khan that the team was worried about being attacked outside the stadium.
The cancellation is a huge setback for Pakistan. After the terrorist attack on Sri Lanka in 2009 and the suspension of its national football team, Pakistan has been trying to resume foreign tours.
The cancellation of the series was announced on Friday as the first one-day international competition will begin at the Rawalpindi Stadium, 10 kilometers away from the Islamabad team hotel.
Ardern said in a short public statement that the New Zealand government supports the cancellation because “player safety must be the most important.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which maintains contact with the New Zealand cricket team, stated that “there is a major threat of terrorism throughout Pakistan” but will not comment on specific security issues.
“New Zealand cricket has its own safety decisions and has established its own safety arrangements for all international tournaments,” the ministry spokesperson said.
When New Zealand Cricket first announced its abandonment of the Pakistan Tour, it stated that the decision was made based on the “New Zealand Government’s Security Alert” and the recommendations of its security advisers.
In 2002, after a suicide bombing outside their team hotel in Karachi killed 14 people, including 11 French naval engineers, the party interrupted a tour.
A New Zealand cricket official told Agence France-Presse that there are no further comments planned “at this time” and would not say whether the security threat that led to the cancellation has been passed on to the Pakistan Cricket Committee or any other cricket country.
The England and Wales Cricket Committee stated that it will decide within the next 48 hours whether to withdraw from the tour planned for next month, and the West Indies and Australia also plan to conduct the tour within the next six months.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Ahmed insisted that “Pakistan’s cricket is not threatened, New Zealand is not threatening, and England is not threatening”.
New Zealand has participated in the Pakistan competition for the first time since 2003, and will participate in three ODI competitions followed by five Twenty20 competitions.
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