Owing to security issues, the New Zealand Cricket Board turned down the request from Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Tuesday to tour the South Asian country. The team will now tour the United Arab Emirates in October-November to play three Tests, ODIs and T20 matches. The fixtures are yet to be announced and PCB wished to host the T20 matches.

“At the end of the day, it came down to following the advisory and the security reports we had obtained. 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. 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,” NZC chairman Greg Barclay told Newshub.

"We were open-minded and we went through all the information. It was an extensive due diligence exercise: Government advisory, Mfat, ICC, independent security consultants, and those were peer-reviewed back here as well. We just came to the decision that given the current circumstances, it just wasn't right for us to accept the invitation to play in Pakistan," stuff.co.nz quoted Barclay, as saying.

The team had toured Pakistan in 2003 and a year after a fatal bomb blast took place right outside their hotel in Karachi as a result, the guests cut short their visit. For years now, Pakistan has made UAE as their home following the deadly terror attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in 2009.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 01, 2018 09:40 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).