New Zealand Cricket Board pays compensation to PCB

The New Zealand Cricket Board has paid a US dollar compensation to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for abruptly canceling a tour of Pakistan in September last year.

The New Zealand Cricket Board admitted its mistake and paid compensation to the PCB, but did not provide details of the amount paid.

In addition to compensating the PCB, the New Zealand Cricket Board has agreed to play five additional T20s and five ODIs scheduled for May next year.

These 10 white-ball matches for New Zealand are in addition to two Tests and three ICC Super League ODI matches to be played in December and January.

It may be recalled that the New Zealand team had canceled its tour a few hours before the first match of the series in Rawalpindi in September last year due to security concerns and left Pakistan.

A statement from the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said, “The New Zealand Cricket Board has informed us that it has received a security alert and has decided to postpone the series unilaterally.”

The statement said: “The Pakistan Cricket Board and the government of Pakistan had made foolproof arrangements for the security of the visiting team. We had assured the New Zealand Cricket Board of this and the Prime Minister personally visited New Zealand. He contacted his counterpart and told him that our security intelligence was one of the best in the world and that there was no security threat to the visiting team.

Cricketers from Pakistan and around the world had expressed outrage over the cancellation of the New Zealand cricket team’s tour of Pakistan due to ‘security concerns’ before the first match at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.

Following New Zealand, the England and Wales Cricket Board announced the cancellation of its teams’ scheduled tour of Pakistan in October in light of growing concerns over-travel in the region.

England had refused to visit Pakistan saying that in the current situation we have decided to withdraw from the tour of both the men’s and women’s teams with great hesitation.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Rameez Raja had expressed frustration over England’s refusal to visit Pakistan, saying “we feel that England has used us and thrown us away”.

Later, the then Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Fawad Chaudhry, said that the government would consult lawyers to take legal action against him for canceling the tour of Pakistan by the New Zealand and England Cricket Boards.