Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry on Tuesday (21st September) said that Pakistan will seek legal advice before taking legal action against the England and New Zealand cricket boards after they canceled trips citing “security” concerns, costing Pakistan Television (PTV) millions of rupees.
Fawad Chaudhry mentioned in a tweet that the England-Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and New Zealand Cricket (NZC) will be held in conversation with attorneys to take legal action.
The Information Minister also added that the international front is collectively working against Pakistan. In addition to this, he also said that those who wish to force Pakistan to surrender before they will never succeed, he says, and they should correct their misperception as soon as possible.
The comments from Fawad Chaudhry came a day after the England Cricket Board confirmed that its tour to Pakistan would be canceled due to security concerns in the country. Before this, New Zealand withdrew from the cricket series, citing a “security alert” issued by their government just before the first ODI in Rawalpindi on Friday.
PCB Chairman Ramiz Raja also tweeted about his disappointment and said, “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.”
The Chairman also added that “It was quite expected as the western bloc gets united to back each other, unfortunately. England withdrawal is unjustified, Pak cricket will prevail.”
In addition, he said, “You may take any decision on the pretext of security threat/perception. Earlier, New Zealand stepped out without sharing [with the PCB] about the nature of the threat they were facing. We know about our battle-hardened security agencies and their standards. It was a setback that they [Kiwis] just took an airplane and left without sharing any details of threat with our agencies.”
Furthermore, he said that “this is a lesson for us because we go out of our way to accommodate and pamper these sides when they visit. We are the best hosts. And when we go there, our players undergo strict quarantines and tolerate their admonishments. And this holds out to us a lesson. Now, we will only go as far as our interest takes us.”
Moreover, Ramiz Raja in his disappointment added that “If the cricket fraternity does not take care of each other then there’s no point to it. New Zealand, then England, now we have a West Indies series that can also be hit, and Australia is already reconsidering options. All of the – England, Australia, New Zealand – is one single bloc. Who can we complain to? We thought they were our own, but they haven’t accepted us as theirs as they look for excuses, including security and mental fatigue, to wriggle out of Pakistan.”
Likewise, he also said that “These teams would not have declined to play Pakistan if we had a big cricket economy or we had a very strong team.” Consequently, according to Ramiz Raja, it all comes to the lesson “that we need to improve and expand our cricket economy so that these countries remain interested in playing us.”
The PCB chairman urged the cricketers to get totally focused with all their courage and a mindset of being unstoppable and invincible because they “didn’t play a fair game with us, and we would avenge that on the field.”
Lastly Ramiz Raja said that “We will play cricket respectably and invite teams to play on the Pakistani soil with respect.”
