Pakistan cricket tour canned after ‘specific, credible security threat’

Plans under way to fly Black Caps out of Islamabad as Pakistan players and officials vent anger and leading sports stars call for explanation. Mark reports.

The Black Caps are on their way out of Pakistan after a ‘‘specific, credible security threat’’ was received by the New Zealand Government.

The cricket team’s longawaited tour of Pakistan was cancelled moments before the first one-day international in Rawalpindi on Friday night – the same day that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Mfat) warned the team of the threat.

The ministry is in contact with NZ Cricket as the team makes plans for its departure, which are being kept under wraps for security reasons.

‘‘New Zealand agencies have provided ongoing and consistent advice that Pakistan remains a high-threat security environment, as outlined in the New Zealand Government travel advisory for Pakistan which notes there is a significant threat from terrorism throughout Pakistan,’’ a media release from the ministry yesterday said.

‘‘Mfat alerted NZ Cricket to information regarding a specific, credible security threat yesterday. We will not discuss details of the threat. Decisions about the tour were made by NZ Cricket.

‘‘We understand how disappointing this decision will be for Pakistan and its cricket community, just as it will be for NZ Cricket and the Black Caps.’’

Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson said the Government supported NZ Cricket’s decision.

‘‘As they have said they did so on the basis of security assessments, including by their own security advisers on the ground. There was a credible security threat and NZ Cricket

has responded appropriately.

‘‘As is normal in situations like this it is not possible or responsible to go into detail around the nature of these threats, but it was credible and had to be taken seriously.

‘‘As the prime minister has said, we are grateful to the Government of Pakistan for keeping the team safe while they have been there, and appreciate how disappointing this decision is for the cricket community in Pakistan. However, player safety has to be paramount.’’

Andrew Little, minister responsible for New Zealand’s GCSB and NZSIS spy agencies, told Newshub yesterday that the threat was serious enough that it had to be communicated to team management.

He said the threat ‘‘related to the Black Caps’ presence in Pakistan’’.

‘‘They had to know about that and we have seen the consequence of that.’’

But former Black Caps allrounder Grant Elliott says NZ Cricket owes angry Pakistan fans and officials a public explanation of its decision to abandon the tour.

The Star-Times understands the 21 players, plus support staff, were set to fly out from Islamabad by today, but their movements remained a closely guarded secret. NZ Cricket and the NZ

Cricket Players’ Association refused to answer further questions last night.

NZ Cricket confirmed on Friday night it had abandoned the Black Caps’ first tour of Pakistan in 18 years, just as the first one-day international was scheduled to start in Rawalpindi, ‘‘following an escalation in the New Zealand Government threat levels for Pakistan, and advice from NZC security advisers on the ground’’.

Australian Reg Dickason, a long-time security consultant for cricket teams touring Pakistan, is with the team in Islamabad.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, told a press conference the threat was a conspiracy from another country, and ‘‘an attempt to damage our efforts for peace in the region’’.

A fuming Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ramiz Raja posted on Twitter: ‘‘Walking out of the tour by taking a unilateral approach on a security threat is very frustrating. Especially when it’s not shared!! Which world is NZ living in?? NZ will hear us at ICC.’’

Elliott played in the Pakistan

Super League as top-level cricket made a gradual return to the country in recent years after the 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan team’s bus in Lahore saw all tours suspended.

He told SENZ radio more explanation was needed from NZ Cricket to placate their hosts.

‘‘Pakistan fans are angry, it looks like the Pakistan Cricket Board are angry, and their new chairman, Ramiz Raja. Everyone is in the dark because it’s an undisclosed threat,’’ Elliott said.

‘‘It’s not so much that, it’s more the process of how they got to that decision. There needs to be a level of transparency around how that decision was made, because when you read the quotes it looks like it’s purely a New Zealand Cricket decision.’’

Elliott understood the reaction of fans and former cricketers.

‘‘Pakistan is a passionate nation. I’ve been there, and there was a presidential level of security when I was there on one occasion. It’s pretty epic, that level of security.

‘‘We can’t understand what sort of threat was made, but I’d say there would be a lot of smoothing over in the next couple of months between Pakistan and New Zealand cricket boards.’’

Ahmed confirmed that Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan, a cricket great, had spoken to New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to reassure her of security for the team.

Ahmed told the press conference that Ardern said the New Zealand Government had ‘‘received intelligence that the team could be attacked when it steps out to go to the stadium’’.

Dickason reportedly contacted Pakistan authorities at 3am (local time) on Friday with news of the threat.

The Dawn news website reported Pakistan Army’s Special Services Group, soldiers, and 4000 policemen were deployed for the matches in Rawalpindi. ‘‘We also tried to convince them to play the match without spectators. But they did not agree to it,’’ Ahmed said.

NZ Cricket rubber-stamped the tour last month, pending a final security assessment which Dickason completed in the fortnight leading up to their arrival.

The Black Caps touched down in Islamabad aboard a charter flight from Dhaka on Saturday night last week, and Pakistan’s Government had promised ‘‘extraordinary’’ security.

Players’ association boss Heath Mills said last week that the team felt secure.

Still, there were reservations among the squad in the lead-up to the tour which was preceded by a Twenty20 series in Bangladesh.

Mills said last month some players had sought reassurance before they left New Zealand, after the Taliban’s takeover of neighbouring Afghanistan which potentially heightened the risk in Pakistan.

Dickason spent 16 years in the Australian police force and in the past two decades became one of the foremost security consultants for sporting teams travelling to volatile countries like Pakistan.

He was with the Black Caps in 2002 when they abandoned their tour of Pakistan when a bomb blast on a bus killed 14 people outside their Karachi hotel on the morning of the second test.

Dickason also accompanied them the following year when they returned to Pakistan with a second-string side and played five one-day internationals without incident.

The New Zealand Government had ‘‘received intelligence that the team could be attacked when it steps out to go to the stadium’’. Sheikh Rashid Ahmed Pakistan Interior Minister