PAK vs NZ cancelled: Two New Zealand players received death threats before landing in Pakistan, reveals New Zealand Cricket

PAK vs NZ cancelled: Two New Zealand players received death threats before landing in Pakistan, reveals New Zealand Cricket – New Zealand Cricket revealed that two of the Kiwi players received death threats even before landing in Pakistan for the New Zealand tour of Pakistan. New Zealand Cricket Players Association revealed the shocking information. NZCPA chief executive Heath Mills admitted that the threats were received through social media and other mediums but the players did not take them seriously.

“A couple of players received death threats a few weeks prior to the tour. It was unusual but they got the threats on social media and through other means. Our experts took some time checking them and concluded that they were not serious in nature,” Mills told Cricbuzz.

New Zealand squad of 34 members were safely flown to Dubai from Pakistan’s Islamabad as NZC decide to abandon the three ODIs and five Twenty20 Internationals series.

The Pakistan Cricket Board headed by newly appointed Ramiz Raja has stated that it will challenge NZ’s decision to abandon the tour minutes before the first game on Friday.

“I don’t think we have overreacted. What we can say we were very impressed with the security in Pakistan. It was safe at the ground, hotel and also during transit to the airport. But we could not have remained there,” the NZCPA chief said.

“Obviously, it has not been an easy time for the players and their families and it is a relief to everyone knowing that they are now safe. We recognise and understand that the decision to leave their country is extremely disappointing for the people of Pakistan. However, player safety has to be our number one priority and we completely support the decision that has been made by New Zealand Cricket (NZC),” the NZCPA’s statement revealed.

“We have complete confidence in the security check processes we follow with NZC prior to going on any tour and remain comfortable with the decision to go — our players were really looking forward to playing in Pakistan for the first time. However, the security checking doesn’t stop on arrival and the continued risk assessments had determined that the situation for our team had changed last Friday and that a decision needed to be made to leave, “Heath Mills concluded.

New Zealand is part of the intelligence wing named Five Eyes consisting of Australia, Canada, the UK and the US. The intelligence wing provided the security inputs to the New Zealand government and the NZ government decided to transfer the same information to New Zealand Cricket. NZC cricket took the call to call off the tour minutes before the first match was scheduled to start.

In reply, a PCB official said, “The funny part is the Brits (England) didn’t change their travel advisory at all. So it was not probably such a critical threat.”