English cricketers say they were clueless ECB will pull out of Pakistan tour

The cricketers’ union of England has denied the claims that the players were behind the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) pulling out of the Pakistan tour scheduled in October and added they were not even asked if they would travel, ARY News learned from a Daily Mail news report published yesterday (Thursday).

Team England Player Partnership (TEPP), a cricket players’ union, says they were left in the dark by the ECB following New Zealand’s abandoning of the scheduled series and to leave Pakistan last week. The NZ fiasco came after a security alert minutes before the opening match in Rawalpindi.

The report further said it supposes that the ECB board met on Sunday and the players were told of the decision to cancel the tour that same afternoon without consultation.

Earlier, it was reported that TEPP had actually intervened and stopped the tour going ahead. However, in a strong rebuttal by the Union, a spokesperson told the media that at no stage has the ECB ever asked “Team England Player Partnership or the teams, men and women, whether the tour should go ahead or whether players were prepared to tour Pakistan”.

“At no stage has Team England Player Partnership informed the ECB that the players would not be touring.”

Pakistan ‘used and binned’ by England over cancelled tour

Earlier this week, Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ramiz Raja said he felt “used and then binned” after England cancelled a white-ball tour for their men’s and women’s teams next month.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) cited “increasing concerns about travelling to the region” just days after New Zealand also pulled out of a tour to Pakistan over security concerns.

However, the British High Commissioner to Pakistan, Christian Turner, confirmed the decision was taken by the ECB on the grounds of player welfare.