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The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said last night (NZ time) it is not worried or bothered by New Zealand players' apprehensions about security in Pakistan during their series of one-day matches planned for August.
"It is something between them and their board, If they don't send their best team they will lose out so we are not bothered," Shafqat Naghmi, a senior PCB official, told The Times of India.
"We don't even know if and when they will send their security delegation to Pakistan for inspection," he added.
New Zealand officials have agreed in principle to playing one-dayers in Multan (August 24) and Faisalabad (August 27 and 30), pending an independent security report, before the Champions Trophy match starts on September 11, the seventh anniversary of the best-known terrorist attacks in the United States.
New Zealand last toured Pakistan in 2003, the year after their previous visit which was cut short when a suicide bomber killed 14 people outside their Karachi hotel.
New Zealand all rounder Jacob Oram was quoted yesterday as saying that some players had issues with playing in Pakistan and that security concerns had figured in the team meetings.
Oram said New Zealand's Cricket Players' Association boss Heath Mills met with the team before last month's first test at Lord's, and Pakistan was one of the issues raised: "There are security issues going on so there will have to be talks, definitely."
It has been reported that some New Zealand players are uncomfortable with the with the circuit of one-day games, especially after Australia cancelled their scheduled tour earlier this year amid outbreaks of violence in Pakistan.
New Zealand Cricket (NZC) has said players will be given an opportunity to miss the tour without any impact on their contractual status, or implications for future selection. Commentators have said this raises the prospect of a young, inexperienced side touring, if senior players follow through with their concerns.
Naghmi said if any team decided to pull out of the Champions Trophy despite security clearance from the ICC and assurances of state level security arrangements by the host country, then the PCB could not do anything about it.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) will provide the security report for the Champions Trophy, with Sri Lanka on standby as backup hosts.
Earlier this week a suicide bomber killed six people and injured 30 outside the Danish embassy in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad.
- NZPA
