Ramiz Raja, the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, said that New Zealand’s abrupt withdrawal from its tour on security grounds has created a lot of pressure on Pakistan cricket, especially at home. The withdrawal has also put a question mark on Pakistan’s ability to host international matches.

The 33-member New Zealand were due to fly out on Saturday after the visitors abandoned its tour to Pakistan minutes before the start of the first One-day International at Rawalpindi on Friday.

“There’s a lot of pressure created on Pakistan cricket and (especially) Pakistan cricket at home,” PCB chairman Ramiz Raja.

“The fight to survive is the base on which we challenge the whole world. If such a situation is developed (again) when international cricket comes under pressure in Pakistan, we will challenge them once again,” he added in a video message.

As they abandoned the tour, New Zealand Cricket (NZC) did not reveal the nature of the security alert from its own government that prompted the sudden decision to cancel the tour. The Black Caps were slated to play three ODIs in Rawalpindi and 5 Twenty20s at Lahore.

A government minister in Pakistan said New Zealand was wary of an attack outside the stadium, prompting them to call off the tour.

Raja was left unimpressed after the tourists took a unilateral decision to pull out despite spending five days in the federal capital and having two training sessions at the Pindi Cricket Stadium.

The PCB chairman was also disappointed as New Zealand did not share the security threat. He plans to raise the issue with the International Cricket Council.

He appealed to Pakistan’s fans to help the team come out of this crisis.

“Your pain and my pain are the same, it’s a shared pain. Whatever happened is not good for Pakistan cricket … The point is that we have experienced this before but we have to move forward,” he said.

“We should learn from this and move forward, we don’t need to get disappointed,” he added.