New Zealand Cricket says no to first Pakistan tour in 15 years

CRICKET authorities in New Zealand have rejected a request to tour Pakistan for the first time in 15 years because of security concerns.

The teams will meet in October in a series in the United Arab Emirates — where Pakistan have played most of their “home” matches following an attack on the Sri Lanka team in 2009 — and their opponents had asked to play the Twenty20 games in Pakistan.

However New Zealand Cricket chairman Greg Barclay said: “We decided circumstances weren’t right for us to tour at the moment.

“At the end of the day it came down to following the [government] advisory and the security reports we’d obtained.

“There’s no doubt Pakistan are disappointed. I think they saw a tour by a country like New Zealand as being a great precedent for them to start to build an international programme back in Pakistan.”

New Zealand’s last visit to Pakistan was in 2003, a year after they cut a previous tour short following a bomb explosion outside their hotel in Karachi.

In April, West Indies became the first team to tour Pakistan in nine years.