On Monday, September 20, England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announced that it has decided to pull out of their next month’s tour of Pakistan. The England men’s and women’s teams were scheduled to play the white-ball series in Pakistan in October. Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ramiz Raja took to Twitter after the news arrived to express his disappointment.

Just a few days back, New Zealand Cricket (NZC) decided to pull out of their tour to Pakistan, only hours before the first game in Rawalpindi. The NZC later revealed that they had intelligence on the ground, which issued a terrorist threat looming large. Raja was disappointed then as well and had expressed this on Twitter.

After this incident, everyone expected the ECB to follow the steps of NZC to abandon their tour to Pakistan. But, in an interesting twist of events, ECB has not cited security concerns as the reason for pulling out. The board informed that it took the decision of pulling out keeping in mind the physical and mental well-being of its players.

Raja said that this is a wake-up call for the Pakistan team to become the best team in the world. “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,” he wrote on Twitter.

The third ODI between New Zealand Women and England Women on Tuesday, September 21, at the Grace Road in Leicester is most likely to go ahead as per schedule after reports of the visitors facing security threats surfaced. As per reports, a member of the New Zealand team management was told that a bomb would be planted at the team hotel.

Earlier, it was also learned that they got the warning of a bomb to be placed on their plane on their return back home. Hence, in order to avoid a mishap, New Zealand anno.