New Zealand to send security delegation to Pakistan ahead of T20I series

Karachi: New Zealand Cricket will send a security delegation to Pakistan ahead of their five-match T20I series in April this year.

A reliable source close to the Pakistan Cricket Board confirmed that the delegation would include private security expert Reg Dickason and a senior official of the NZ players association Heath Mills.

Dickason has been the regular security consultant for the ICC and other cricket boards when top tier teams have visited Pakistan in recent years.

In the 2022-23 season, Pakistan hosted England and New Zealand twice along with Australia (once).

“The delegation is due in early March to visit Lahore and Rawalpindi where the matches will probably be held,” the source said.

The Kiwi team’s visit is not part of the ICC FTP and is a return visit for the five T20Is that Pakistan played in New Zealand in January this year.

The security delegation will visit the match venues and team hotels and also meet with government and security officials to oversee the security plans for the visiting team.

In September 2021, the New Zealand white-ball squad returned home from Rawalpindi without playing a game in a long-awaited series owing to a security threat.

The decision to call the team back home was taken at the highest level by the New Zealand government, which viewed it as a serious threat.

Later on, after New Zealand returned to Pakistan in the 2022-23 season to play a Test and ODI series followed by another separate white-ball series.