Pakistan’s information minister Fawad Chaudhry has revealed that the New Zealand team received the threat via an email which led to their government asking them to come back home and canceling their tour of Pakistan on the day of the 1st ODI in Rawalpindi.
New Zealand had traveled to Pakistan for the first time since 2003 for three ODIs in Lahore and five T20Is in Lahore. However, on the day of the first ODI, the New Zealand Cricket Board announced that due to a security threat, the tour has been called off and the players left for Dubai via Islamabad, the very same day.
New Zealand Cricket said they were aware of a "specific and credible" threat but did not give details.
Now Pakistan Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said the threat had come via an email, which originated in India.
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"This email was generated from India through a VPN showing the location of Singapore," Chaudhry told reporters in Pakistan's capital.
Chaudhry added that the West Indies team, due to arrive in December, had also been sent a threat that he said was fake.
Pakistan has been struggling to get top tier teams back in the country for international cricket after a decade of being shunned due to terrorist attacks on the Sri Lanka team in 2009. New Zealand's withdrawal dealt a massive blow to Pakistan's hopes of staging regular international cricket.
This led to England canceling their men’s and women’s teams’ tours to Pakistan which was to happen in October this year.
(Reuters inputs)
