Pakistan Cricket Board’s (ECB) hopes of assuring England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to send the England men’s and women’s teams for their tour of Pakistan failed as the ECB officially canceled the upcoming tour.

This would have been the England men’s first time visiting Pakistan since 2005 and the women’s team’s first ever visit to Pakistan.

However, it was not to be as ECB following New Zealand Cricket (NZC), who pulled out of their tour of Pakistan on the day of the first ODI in Rawalpindi after a security threat from the government, decided that it was too much of a risk for their players to travel to Pakistan.

This puts PCB’s efforts of bringing top-tier cricket back to Pakistan several steps behind. Pakistan was starved of international for more than a decade after the terrorist attack on the Sri Lanka team in 2009. Zimbabwe, Kenya, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka were some teams that visited Pakistan in recent times.

PCB tried to get Bangladesh, Sri Lanka to tour Pakistan after New Zealand pulled out: CEO Wasim Khan

Pakistan was hoping to impress the big teams like England, Australia, and others by successfully hosting New Zealand, who were visiting for the first time since 2003. However their withdrawal now had a cascading effect on the England tour as well, and this didn’t sit well with new PCB chairman Ramiz Raja.

He tweeted in disappointment and was furious with England pulling out of their commitment and accused them of failing a member of the cricket fraternity in times of need. Raja also tweeted that the Pakistan team needs to become the best in the world so that other teams line up to play them in their home.

“Disappointed with England, pulling out of their commitment & failing a member of their Cricket fraternity when it needed it most. Survive we will inshallah. A wake up call for Pak team to become the best team in the world for teams to line up to play them without making excuses,” Raja posted.