EDITORIAL: It came like a bolt from the blue. Just half an hour before the opening match on Friday afternoon of the eagerly-awaited T20 Pakistan-New Zealand series in 18 years at Rawalpindi’s Cricket Stadium, the New Zealand Cricket Board decided to cancel it, citing a security threat. It is likely also to put paid to the England team’s scheduled visit next month for two-day T20 Internationals in Rawalpindi, and with that Pakistan’s hopes of full revival of international cricket. Unfortunately, all the fool-proof safety assurances by the relevant quarters failed to work. To save the situation Prime Minister Imran Khan called his counterpart in Wellington, Jacinda Ardern, telling her Pakistan’s intelligence system, known to be one of the world’s best, had detected no such threat. He even offered to hold the matches without spectators. But she remained unconvinced, claiming that there were reports of a possible attack on the team while coming out of the hotel. She may have had a valid security concern, but what is intriguing about the unsavoury episode is that the source of the intelligence information on which the decision was based has not been shared with Pakistan.
No surprise then that the refusal to provide that vital information is being widely seen as Pakistan’s detractors’ scheme not only to its damage cricket but also its image as a peaceful country. Speaking at a presser soon after the development, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid averred that the New Zealand authorities do not have substantive evidence of the “perceived threat”, terming it a conspiracy hatched to “tarnish Pakistan’s image”. Though reluctant to name any names stating that would be inappropriate, he seemed to be alluding to the usual suspect as he went on to use the opportunity to say that Indian media was “defaming Pakistan.” Some others have been pointing the finger in a different direction, prompting the British High Commissioner in Pakistan, Christian Turner, to tweet “speculation that British High Commission was involved in Pakistan vs. New Zealand tour being called off are untrue: this was a decision for the New Zealand authorities and taken independently.”
Whilst the cancellation of the series is deeply disappointing for cricket lovers the newly-appointed PCB chairman, Ramiz Raja, has declared in a Twitter post his intention to approach the International Cricket Council (ICC) over what transpired on a “crazy day.” He is expected to know better than that. The ICC would be of little help considering that it is for the participating countries to proceed with tours based on security or other considerations. India, for instance, has consistently been refusing to play in this country due to political reasons. Nonetheless, while expressing frustration over the Kiwis’ last-minute decision to walk out of the tour over an unspecified security threat Raja had a mighty point as he added, “especially when it is not shared!!” The withholding of the purported terrorism-related information means it came from an antagonistic source and hence unreliable, which, to say the least, is alarming. New Zealand’s prime minister must come clean about the ‘security threat’.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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