Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ramiz Raja was left fuming after the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announced that the tour of Pakistan in October by their men’s and women’s teams had been cancelled due to “increasing concerns about travelling to the region.”
New Zealand too had called of their white-ball tour of Pakistan recently hours before the start of the opening match in Rawalpindi citing security threats.
ECB’s decision to cancel the Pakistan tour has dealt a massive blow to the country’s busiest home season in nearly two decades. In a video message released by the PCB on Tuesday, Ramiz said, “I am severely disappointed in England’s withdrawal but it was expected because this western bloc gets united unfortunately and tries to back each other.
“So you can take any decision on the basis of security threat and perception. There was a sense of anger because first New Zealand got away without sharing information about the threat they were facing. Now, this [England] was expected but this is a lesson for us because we go out of our way to accommodate and pamper these sides when they visit. And when we go there, we undergo strict quarantines and we tolerate their admonishments, but there is a lesson in this.