KARACHI, 14 November 2003 — Pakistan reacted with disappointment yesterday to the decision by four New Zealand players not to travel to Pakistan for the one-day series starting next week.
New Zealand Cricket said Craig McMillan, Lou Vincent, Ian Butler and Scott Styris, who are currently touring India, had made themselves unavailable after receiving threats in a letter.
The team’s video analyst, Zach Hitchcock is also returning to New Zealand.
Their pullout has thrown the series of five One-Day Internationals starting on Nov. 22 in Faisalabad into doubt.
“We are disappointed,” Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chief Executive Ramiz Raja told Reuters. “We wanted a full strength squad to tour Pakistan.
“We have given them fresh assurances and outlined that they would be provided with the same security that was given to the South African team. We have done this because we are very keen for this tour to go ahead.”
Raja said the Pakistan board had received a copy of the letter and had sent it to the authorities. “We are taking it seriously and leaving no stone unturned to find out where it could have come from.”
He recalled that the South African team that toured Pakistan without mishap last month had received a similar letter before their arrival.
The four players were members of the New Zealand team that returned home from Karachi in May last year without playing a Test after a bomb blast outside their hotel killed 14 people, including 11 French technicians.
Raja said that if the four players had pulled out because of the traumatic experience they suffered last year, then it was a matter between them and their board and acceptable to the PCB.
“But if they have pulled out because of security or safety concerns, we would like to know about it and can try to give reassurances that they would be safe in Pakistan.”
New Zealand agreed to play the one-day series in lieu of the canceled Test to allow the Pakistan board to recoup some of its losses. But they asked the PCB to not schedule any of their matches in Karachi or in Peshawar, a city near the Afghan border.
New Zealand Cricket Chief Executive Martin Snedden refused to speculate on the fate of the tour.
But he said the threat was being discussed with New Zealand’s Foreign Ministry, the International Cricket Council and the Pakistan board to determine its validity, a process expected to take up to four days.
New Zealand are due to arrive in Islamabad on Nov. 20 to play one-dayers in Faisalabad, Rawalpindi and Lahore.
