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| May 30, 2003 | Friday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 27,1424 |
Kiwis agree to play five ODIs
LAHORE, May 29: New Zealand on Wednesday accepted Pakistan’s proposal of playing five One-day Internationals in November to make up for last year’s cancelled Test at Karachi.
In a letter to Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), New Zealand Cricket (NZC)’s chief executive Martin Snedden said: “NZC agrees that New Zealand will visit Pakistan immediately after the conclusion of our tour of India to participate in a five-match ODI series.”
The second and final Test of the 2002 tour had to be cancelled when a bomb blast outside the team’s hotel resulted in 14 people being killed, including 11 French naval engineers just the teams were heading for the start of the Test at National Stadium. Subsequently it was unanimously agreed to end the tour.
Since then no country visited Pakistan and the PCB had demanded compensation from the ICC for the loss of that Test against the Kiwis.
PCB has welcomed the decision of NZC.
“We are delighted with the news because it would open doors for international teams to resume tours to Pakistan more regularly. We are already hosting Bangladesh and South Africa between August and October but the tour by the Black Caps will be significant as they were the last team to come to Pakistan before their tour was curtailed because of reasons beyond PCB’s control,” PCB chief executive Ramiz Raja said in a statement.
“New Zealand’s consent clearly proves that NZC has complete faith in the commitments of Pakistan government and PCB to provide security to its players.
“New Zealand’s acceptance also indicates that we were not only able to convince NZC but also the ICC that Pakistan is a safe country to play cricket and do business as the resumption of foreign teams’ tours would open a window of opportunity for foreign business investments to filter through,” the statement further said.
Ramiz said the PCB realised that the series would be played in the holy month of Ramazan and respected the sentiments of the masses. “But to regain our credibility as an international venue and because of tight international commitments, we have to accommodate NZC request.”
Ramiz said now since NZC has officially confirmed their availability, the PCB would sit down to finalise the tour schedule.
With New Zealand joining the fray, Pakistan host six Tests (three each against Bangladesh and South Africa) and 13 One-day Internationals (five each against Bangladesh and New Zealand and three against South Africa) between August and November.
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