England’s scheduled tour of Pakistan for two Twenty/20 Internationals has been cancelled

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have announced that England’s scheduled tour of Pakistan for two Twenty/20 Internationals in mid-October has been cancelled.

England’s Men and Women were to play Twenty/20 International double-headers in Rawalpindi on 13^th and 14^th October, with the Women’s team to play a three-match One Day International series.

But following New Zealand’s last-minute withdrawal from their tour of Pakistan due to a security threat, the fixtures have been scrapped.

The ECB use ESI Security, the same security consultants, as New Zealand Cricket (NZC), and despite the Pakistan Cricket Board’s, Chief Executive Officer, Wasim Khan, insisting on Sunday that he expected the fixtures to go ahead as scheduled, they were immediately in doubt after New Zealand flew home.

The ECB released a statement on Monday afternoon confirming that its board had “reluctantly decided to withdraw both teams from the October trip”, citing “increasing concerns about travelling to the region”, and the prospect of adding “further pressure to a playing group who have already coped with a long period of operating in restricted COVID enivornments”.