No Kenya for New Zealand

[GoEagles]

"New Zealand Cricket says its team will not play its scheduled World Cup match in Kenya next month, claiming the security risk for the players was too high.

New Zealand Cricket said after a day-long board meeting on Friday that it did not believe the decision to play in Nairobi made by the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Thursday was reasonable.

"The information received by the ICC Security Delegation to Kenya made it clear that there is a tangible terrorist threat in Nairobi and the board has seen nothing which changes that," NZ Cricket said in a statement.

Zimbabwe and Kenya retained their preliminary matches for the World Cup after a special ICC tele-conference on Thursday to discuss potential security fears.

The ICC rejected a plea by New Zealand to switch their February 21 match against Kenya from Nairobi to South Africa, while no formal resolution was presented by England to shift their game against Zimbabwe away from Harare.

NZ Cricket said it would resolve the matter through "legal processes" but gave no details.

Six World Cup matches are scheduled for Zimbabwe and two in Nairobi. The remaining 46 games in the tournament opening in Cape Town on February 9 will take place in South Africa."

Source: BaggyGreen (http://www-aus.cricket.org/link_to_database/ARCHIVE/CRICKET_NEWS/2003/JAN/130043_REUTERS_31JAN2003.html)

I only see this making it harder for New Zealand to make the Super 6 if they give up their points.

[Bomber Spirit]

Player safety has to be the number 1 priority. And if the players don't feel safe, then they can't be expected to play. Forfeiting the game will cost them competition points, but if they went and played and something untoward happened, then they'll lose a lot more than that.

[Zombie]

Fair enough, the New Zealand team have seen terrorism first hand in Pakistan last year, it is understandable why they are not prepared to play in Kenya.

[jozeph]

NZ played in England when the IRA were running amok...

[ScouseCat]

Originally posted by Bomber Spirit
Player safety has to be the number 1 priority. And if the players don't feel safe, then they can't be expected to play. Forfeiting the game will cost them competition points, but if they went and played and something untoward happened, then they'll lose a lot more than that.

I agree totally with your comments Bomber Spirit. The safety of the players is the most important thing here, not points and certainly not politics. New Zealand should still make the Siper Six stage, it's just a shame that it's come this far.

It's not the first time a tean has forfeited a match in the World Cup... Australia refused to play in Sri Lanka back in 1996 due to safety issues.

[Sydneyfan]

Originally posted by jozeph
NZ played in England when the IRA were running amok...

Though it's a bit closer to home when a bomb goes off in front of your hotel and you're confronted with aftermath. I respect NZ's decision, the chances of anything untoward happening is slim but since they've had first hand experience of the effect of terrorism, you can't blame them for not taking the risk.