Pakistan cricketers threatened to cancel their upcoming tour of New Zealand if the Kiwis abandon a scheduled tour of Pakistan due to start later this month because of security concerns. “If they (New Zealand) are not going to fulfill their obligation, we are not going to tour New Zealand,” Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Tauqir Zia said. New Zealand cricket officials said today they would decide by Monday whether the tour of Pakistan would go ahead after threats made against the players in an e-mail message. Full details of the threats have not been released but New Zealand Cricket (NZC) chief executive Martin Snedden said it was “very direct — it is explicit about the Black Caps in Pakistan and a warning not to go.” The e-mail message “certainly threatened consequences if the team were to ignore the warning”. New Zealand aborted its tour to Pakistan last year when a bomb explosion killed 14 people outside their hotel on the day the second Test was due to begin. New Zealand are due to play five One-Day Internationals at Faisalabad (November 22), Rawalpindi (November 24 and 25) and Lahore (November 29 and December 1). Pakistan is scheduled to play two Test matches and five One-Day Internationals from December 5 to January 21, 2004, during the above-mentioned tour to New Zealand. “It is a policy decision that we will not go to New Zealand if it does not come to play in Pakistan,” Zia said. The PCB termed the letter a “hoax.” “South Africa also received a similar hoax letter before coming to Pakistan but after we gave them the assurance they believed us and sent their team,” a PCB spokesman said.
