Players can’t be blamed for the cancelled Pakistan tour: reacts New Zealand pacer, Mitchell McClenaghan

The 35-year-old player reacted to a very sarcastic tweet by Pakistani all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez on Saturday before the New Zealand team left Pakistan.

New Zealand pace bowler Mitchell McClenaghan has said that the players can not be blamed for the Pakistan tour being cancelled a few days back. The 35-year-old player reacted to a very sarcastic tweet by Pakistani all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez on Saturday before the New Zealand team left Pakistan.

Hafeez took a dig at New Zealand Cricket (NZC) for forfeiting their tour of Pakistan due to an elevated security threat. His post on Twitter stated that the New Zealand team reached the airport safely due to the arrangements made by Pakistani security and wondered that it was the same route and the same security but why was there no threat today.

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McClenaghan’s reply to that tweet as reported by PTI and said that Hafeez’s tweet left a bad taste. He told Hafeez not to blame the players or the organization as mostly the New Zealand government was behind the alert of an “elevated” security threat and the team mostly acted on their advice. He ended by saying that all the young players wanted to prove themselves on the international stage by playing but they had no choice other than to cancel and move.

On Friday, New Zealand was supposed to play their first ODI against Pakistan in Rawalpindi but the players initially did not move out from the hotel which lead to news coming out that the tour was cancelled due to an alert sent by the government to NZC about an “elevated” security threat.

This led to anger and furore among cricket fans, players and administrators in Pakistan. New PCB chief Ramiz Raja has said that he will take up this issue with the ICC but posted a video later coming off as reconciliatory and assuring the fans that cricket will come back to the country again.