Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ramiz Raja expressed his dismay Friday at New Zealand’s decision to abandon a limited-overs series over security concerns just as the first one-day international was due to start in Rawalpindi.
“Walking out of the tour by taking a unilateral approach on a security threat is very frustrating. Especially when it’s not shared!!” tweeted Raja, appointed Monday as the new PCB chairman.
Disappointed with England, pulling out of their commitment & failing a member of their Cricket fraternity when it needed it most. Survive we will inshallah. A wake up call for Pak team to become the best team in the world for teams to line up to play them without making excuses.
— Ramiz Raja (@iramizraja) September 20, 2021
Raja, a former Pakistan captain, indicated the matter would be taken to the International Cricket Council.
“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,” Ramiz said in a video posted by PCB.
“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,” he added.
The former cricketer believed it was a wake-up call for Pakistan to strengthen its cricket economy.
“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. That is, that from now on we will only go as far as is in our interest.
“We have to improve and expand our cricket economy so that these countries remain interested in playing us,” he added.
Watch Ramiz Raja’s full video message below:
PCB Chairman Ramiz Raja reacts to @ECB_cricket decision to withdraw their sides from next month’s tour of Pakistan pic.twitter.com/hvPqHqdBcj
— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) September 20, 2021
(With AFP inputs)