Pakistan dealt blow as New Zealand players likely to miss World XI series

Contracted players from the New Zealand cricket team are unlikely to tour Pakistan for the World XI series next month.

Apart from Zimbabwe, no other nation has toured Pakistan ever since the 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team bus in Lahore.

With much debate on whether this year's Pakistan Super League (PSL) final back in March should or should not have taken place in Lahore due to safety concerns, it was eventually held there in what was an incident-free event.

With the success of the PSL final, it was expected that the International Cricket Council (ICC) were reestablishing international cricket in the nation by sending a World XI to Pakistan in September for a four-match Twenty20 (T20) series.

"The desire is to give the cricket-starved Pakistani supporters the chance to see some of the world's finest players in live action," President of the England and Wales Cricket Board, Giles Clarke said, as quoted by The Guardian in March.

"The world of cricket needs to help Pakistan, who cannot continue to play their home fixtures overseas. The youth need inspiring, and the national teams need far more cricket played in familiar terrain. Furthermore, the terrorists cannot win and cricket must not give up on Pakistan," Clarke added.

However, the Champions Trophy winners have suffered a blow as New Zealand Cricket chief executive David White claimed "international commitments" have come in the way.

"For the contracted players, it's highly likely they will be unavailable [for Pakistan] due to other international commitments that I can't say any more about at this stage," White stated, as quoted by CricBuzz.

"For the non-contracted players, there's ongoing security advice from the ICC, and I know the Players' Association has sought independent security advice as well. They'll be guided by that advice and make a decision and they would have to assume the risk of going [to Pakistan]."

Although some players are reportedly being offered over $100,000 (£77,010), along with the fact that there is no conflicting series scheduled for next month, White says the decision has nothing to do with security concerns from the players.

He also added that New Zealand would have "international commitments over that period that would preclude the players participating."

The World XI team is expected to assemble in Dubai on 17 September, before flying to Lahore for the T20 series.