NZC turns down tour to Pakistan

A mooted Black Caps return to Pakistan for the first time in 15 years has been officially called off, a month after New Zealand Cricket’s board gave it the thumbs down.

NZC chairman Greg Barclay confirmed it declined the Pakistan Cricket Board’s request in writing just over a week ago.

In April the PCB invited NZC to send the team to Pakistan for two Twenty20 internationals, before continuing their tour in the United Arab Emirates. The series of three T20s, three ODIs and three tests, from late October until early December, will take place entirely in the UAE as scheduled.

‘‘We were open-minded and we went through all the information. It was an extensive due diligence exercise: Government advisory, Mfat, ICC, independent security consultants, and those were peer reviewed back here as well,’’ Barclay said. ‘‘We just came to the decision that given the current circumstances it just wasn’t right for us to accept the to play in Pakistan.’’

The Black Caps last toured Pakistan without incident in December 2003, 18 months after their previous tour was cut short by a fatal bomb blast outside their Karachi hotel on the morning of the second test.

Barclay said NZC sympathised with Pakistan’s financial plight with barely any international teams willing to tour there for security reasons, particularly after an attack on the Sri Lankan team’s bus in Lahore in 2009. invitation