New Zealand have refused to play a T20 series in Pakistan due to security reasons.

It would have been New Zealand’s first tour in Pakistan in 15 years, but a board official has confirmed that it won’t be happening.

‘At the end of the day, it came down to following the advisory and the security reports we’d obtained,’ New Zealand Cricket chairman Greg Barclay told NewsHub.

The Black Caps are, however, scheduled to play against Pakistan at their adopted home ground in the United Arab Emirates in October. They will play three Tests, three ODIs and three T20s.

The Pakistan Cricket Board officials hoped that the T20s could change into a three-match series in Pakistan after they successfully hosted West Indies for three-match T20 series in Karachi. During that series, the West Indies became the first major side to tour Pakistan since 2009. The drought of cricket in the country came after a terrorist attack on the visiting Sri Lanka team in 2009.

New Zealand last visited Pakistan in 2003, a year after a bomb explosion outside the team’s hotel in Karachi ended their tour prematurely.

‘There’s no doubt they [Pakistan Cricket Board] are disappointed. I think they saw a tour by a country like New Zealand as being a great precedent for them to start to build an international programme back in Pakistan,’ Barclay continued.

‘So they’re disappointed but they’re good guys, we get on really well with Pakistan, and I think they’re fully accepting of the decision that we’ve reached.’

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