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Dangerous play

Laura Walters looks at what government security agencies told NZ Cricket before, during and after the Black Caps’ tour of Pakistan was dramatically called off.

APakistan cricket tour 18 years in the making was called off after intelligence agencies received ‘‘specific and credible’’ information that terrorists were planning an attack against the scheduled matches, government documents reveal.

About 8am on September 17, the Security Intelligence Service received information through its Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network that there was ‘‘attack planning against the New Zealand Cricket team’’.

It was this information that led to the national cricket team calling off the tour and leaving Pakistan on a late-night chartered flight to Dubai.

Three days later, Britain – also a member of Five Eyes – cancelled England’s upcoming cricket tour to the South Asian country.

The decision to abandon the tour ahead of the Black Caps’ first game in Pakistan in 18 years created diplomatic issues for both the Government and New Zealand Cricket (NZC).

The cancellation of a high-profile sporting event – in itself a form of diplomacy – has the ability to impact a country’s international reputation.

The incident led to a call between Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her Pakistan counterpart, Imran Khan, himself a star former cricketer.

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

At the time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) referred to a ‘‘specific and credible threat’’, but government documents, obtained by The Dominion Post under the Official Information Act, reveal the nature of that threat.

Reporting reveals the Five Eyes network as the source of that threat information. This gives further justification to the team’s decision to leave.

NZ Cricket Players’ Association (NZCPA) head Heath Mills said fans and officials were understandably upset at the decision to leave. The lack of publicly available details left an information vacuum, which fuelled frustration.

Mills was happy to add context to the decision, saying it showed how committed New Zealand was to the tour.

‘‘Everyone in the cricket world feels very sorry for Pakistan,’’ he said. ‘‘We all need each other . . . the schedule and the programme work on a bilateral basis, where everyone helps each other.’’

He backed the initial decision to tour Pakistan, and the call to leave after the Government obtained information about terror attack planning against the team.

NZ Cricket refused to comment, referring The Dominion Post to comments made at the time.

Furthermore, the wording in government correspondence casts doubt over the decision to tour the country in the first place.

Ahead of the tour, MFAT noted the tour would progress ‘‘despite the [high] threat level’’. It explained to NZ Cricket that its current travel advice to Pakistan reflected the high threat level, and indicated that terrorist acts were expected, including against Western targets.

This information was provided to NZ Cricket’s trusted head of security in Pakistan, Reg Dickason, and the board.

‘‘I should be clear that decisions regarding the tour and team’s travel were entirely a matter for New Zealand Cricket,’’ SIS director-general Rebecca Kitteridge said.

Mills said tour decisions did not solely rely on government security information.

If NZ Cricket had confidence in the security plan, and the ability to implement it, the tour would go ahead.

These assessments and security plans were carried out ahead of every tour, but

the security in Pakistan was particularly tight.

New Zealand had not toured Pakistan since 2003, due to long-held security concerns after a 2002 suicide bomb attack outside the team’s Karachi hotel, while in 2009, the Sri Lanka team’s bus was attacked in Lahore.

The security plan covered the airport, hotel, grounds and transit. There were full road closures when the players travelled, and their hotel was under military guard.

Mills said the rhetoric that New Zealand never wanted to go to Pakistan was incorrect.

At the time, former Black Caps allrounder Grant Elliott said NZ Cricket owed angry Pakistan fans and officials transparency over how it came to the decision to abandon the tour.

Elliott, who played in Pakistan’s domestic Twenty20 league, said Pakistan fans and officials were angry because

they had been left in the dark. ‘‘I am not sure what happened in Pakistan, but as a player you always have to put your trust in the decision makers around player health and wellbeing,’’ he told The Dominion Post.

‘‘I have been on many tours, which get checked around security levels by NZCPA and NZC. The players trust this process and there are pretty amazing levels of security that the players experience, so they can feel safe playing,’’ he said.

After NZ Cricket called off the tour, players and management faced criticism and harassment online. Head of Pakistan Cricket Board Ramiz Raja tweeted: ‘‘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’’.

Meanwhile, players were openly

criticised by people at the hotel in Islamabad, and were approached by an armed member of the military.

This is in addition to players receiving death threats and bomb threats over social media before the tour, and following the cancellation.

NZ Cricket said the threats were assessed by security and intelligence experts, and were deemed not credible.

There was increased anxiety and hesitancy among the players ahead of the tour, which led to additional safety briefings.

While much of the specific security information was withheld from the documents obtained by The Dominion Post, they did give a clearer picture of the correspondence between the Government and NZ Cricket ahead of the tour, and the steps taken to mitigate fallout after the threat was received.

Ahead of the tour, the NZSIS Combined Threat Assessment Group

(CTAG) carried out threat assessments and the Major Events Security Committee briefed NZ Cricket. The MFAT advice that New Zealanders should not travel to Pakistan was also reiterated.

After the threat information was received on September 17, a watch group was gathered and a meeting convened by the Officials’ Committee for Domestic and External Security Coordination (ODESC).

Meeting minutes showed government officials discussed possible threats to New Zealanders in Pakistan, threats to those attending games – should the tour continue – and potential domestic fallout.

NZ Police highlighted the risk to New Zealand’s Pakistani community should the tour be cancelled, or if an attack were to happen. Police noted the ongoing sentiment following the September 3 LynnMall terror attack. They also developed a contingency plan, which included ‘‘targeted reassurance patrolling and outreach’’, should the tour continue.

Insight

en-nz

2021-12-04T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-12-04T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/282144999630246

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