There was some good news from the cricket world as PCB Chairman Ramiz Raja says New Zealand may tour Pakistan early next year as compensation for the abandoned tour last month. The PCB chief claims that New Zealand Cricket (NZC) is rescheduling the tour that was cancelled moments before the first match in Rawalpindi. NZC has also confirmed having started talks to reschedule their tour of Pakistan.
While aborting the tour, NZC had cited “security threats”, which Pakistan said were of Indian origin and did not appear credible. Since NZC has not given details of the threats it acted on, we can only assume they were the same that Pakistan detailed and that the Kiwis were acting out of an abundance of caution. Still, while it is good news that NZC appears to be righting a wrong, some voices in the country are calling for Pakistan to reject the rescheduling offer.
But Raja, to his credit, said in the Senate that Pakistan is not in a position to reject the tour offer outright. This is not surprising since security concerns, even if they later turn out to be unfounded, are one of the few reasons the ICC allows for cancelling tours without any penalties. However, Raja also made clear that there was a lot of politicking under way at ICC Headquarters and that Pakistan can’t really afford to slight India because about 90% of the ICC’s funding comes from India. The PCB gets about half of its funding from the ICC, meaning that India essentially finances PCB operations.
Elsewhere, many Pakistani cricket fans were happy to learn that England Cricket Board (ECB) Chairman Ian Watmore quit after less than a year on the job. The ECB chief was already surrounded by controversy over how he cancelled England’s tour of Pakistan. Watmore’s ECB blamed players for cancelling the tour just days after the New Zealand fiasco, forcing the English players’ union to say they had no role in the decision, and earning condemnation from Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who wanted the tour to go ahead.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 9th, 2021.
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