Pakistan rules out NZ boycott at World Cup

PAKISTAN will not boycott next month’s Twenty20 World Cup match against New Zealand after the Black Caps abruptly abandoned their tour over security fears, the country’s cricket board said.

The cancellation is a massive setback for Pakistan, which has been trying to revive tours by foreign sides after home internationals were suspended after a 2009 terror attack on the Sri Lankan team.

New Zealand has refused to give details of the security threat that forced it to cancel the tour on Friday just as the first one-day international was to begin in Rawalpindi.

The decision infuriated the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and sparked calls for a boycott of the New Zealand team.

But PCB chief executive Wasim Khan said no such action was planned.

“Right now there is no issue of us not playing New Zealand,” Khan said. “We have a duty to the fans.”

He ruled out players wearing black armbands in protest.

“I think we just need to be very careful in terms of the perspective,” he said. “We don’t want to take that route, showing any sort of political gesturing and posturing and any sort of visible protest.”

Pakistan and New Zealand will meet in the T20 World Cup in Sharjah on October 26.

Khan said the abandonment had created “political tensions” in the PCB’s relationship with New Zealand Cricket “because the way it was done was disrespectful”.

The three-ODI and fiveT20 series would have been the Black Caps’ first games in Pakistan in 18 years. England and Australia are scheduled to play in Pakistan later this year.

“We have done everything for other countries, our players have sacrificed 14 days of quarantine in New Zealand and went to New Zealand after an attack on the mosque,” said Khan in reference to the March 2019 attack in Christchurch.