ISLAMABAD:Pakistan Cricket Team’s skipper Babar Azam, expressing full trust in security measures taken by the national law enforcement agencies to conduct Pakistan-New Zealand series, said the unilateral decision of the visitors’ was “extremely disappointing”.
The Pakistan team captain believed that the Pak-NZ games would have brought back smiles to the faces of millions of Pakistani cricket fans.
In a tweet he backed the country’s security agencies after New Zealand’s abrut pull out of white-ball tour and said “they are our pride and always will be.”
The delay in toss ahead of the first ODI in Rawalpindi was followed by an update that players of both the teams had been asked to remain inside their hotel rooms. It was after half an hour or so that NZC (New Zealand Cricket) and PCB (Pakistan Cricket Board) issued official statement regarding the visitors unilateral decision to abandon the tour.
New Zealand, who had last played international cricket in Pakistan in 2003 and returned for the ODI and T20 series after a gap of 18 years. The Kiwis were scheduled to play three ODIs and five T20s in Rawalpindi and Lahore, respectively.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in a statement on Friday said the New Zealand Cricket (NZC) had decided to postpone the series on claimed security reasons.