KEY POINTS:
New Zealand cricketers first experienced a bomb explosion in Sri Lanka in 1987.
With over 100 people dead at a bus station, the players were told to stay inside the hotel. No exceptions.
One player couldn't resist and went for a stroll to see what it was all about. The manager was spluttering when he discovered he was one short, and the player learned some tough realities.
Since then, coping with terrorism has become common for teams in the region, not that there's ever been compelling evidence that they were targets.
That's small consolation if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that's why players get twitchy when Pakistan pops up on their calendar of activities each year.
So fancy being in Justin Vaughan's shoes right now?
New Zealand Cricket's chief executive might have been hoping for some quiet time after wrestling with the Shane Bond/IPL/ICL issues. Fat chance. Instead he's front and centre as the game tries to avoid potentially its most damaging split.
If New Zealand, facing a raft of withdrawals from senior players, opt not to send a team to the Champions Trophy in Pakistan in September, it faces being whacked with a fat US$10 million ($13.4 million) fine from the International Cricket Council.
If NZC can persuade sufficient players to go, it will be a weakened team, with minds perhaps not fully on the job and facing the likelihood of early elimination, but the bank balance far better off.
How Vaughan, who took part in the ICC teleconference on Thursday night, feels about thing is not known. He wasn't talking yesterday.
Step into Pakistan's shoes for a moment. Facing a boycott from the best players from five countries _ England, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and the West Indies _ they will feel a significant hurt.
Even given their best security efforts, the (largely) white cricket nations aren't interested in touring.
How will that play out in the years ahead? Is this the start of the end of the game as we know it, not on the field but off it? How does another Tri-Nations, or maybe Quad-Nations, sound?
A massive faultline is taking shape on cricket's global playing field.
We've been here before, but how you can have a world game where several of its constituents won't play ball with fellow members on their turf beats me.
Don't be surprised if this is the end for the Champions Trophy, envisaged as a mini-World Cup when it began 10 years ago.
When a bomb went off in Karachi, prematurely ending New Zealand's last tour there in 2002, three current internationals were there, Daniel Vettori, Scott Styris and Jacob Oram. Last night Styris suggested that if New Zealand's players stand together, it will be hard to send a team.
The New Zealand Players' Association make recommendations to its members, but can't order that they hold a line. There are concerns individual players might be pressured to go to Pakistan, but there is little point leaning on players who don't want to tour.
There is sympathy for NZC's predicament from the players, but there are two bottom lines: player safety and fulfilling an obligation you've signed on for. Right now, they seem incompatible.
