Once cricket was considered the game of gentlemen. Probably, not anymore. One of the traits of gentlemen happens to be that they fulfill their commitments and do not back off on flimsy grounds. The Black Caps failed on this count the other day when they withdrew from a cricket match, and later the entire series, minutes before it was scheduled to start. It left the entire Pakistani nation shocked and baffled, to say the least.Ma’am, I am a die-hard cricket fan but I have chosen to write to you and vent my disappointment not as a cricket fan but a common Pakistani. Your decision and the subsequent act – particularly the way it was executed – have left us Pakistanis disheartened, disappointed and, above all, insulted.

Still worse, the game which was supposed to bring people around the world closer has set them apart.

By no means does one intend to say that the lives of the visiting New Zealanders were any less important, yet it was not the best way to handle the situation. If there was a credible security threat, it should have been immediately brought into the notice of host authorities. In fact, the security teams of both the countries could have sat together, analysed the available evidence, and adopted the best course of action. The loopholes, if at all, could have been identified and plugged to the satisfaction of the security experts of New Zealand. The first match could have been postponed or cancelled and the fate of the entire series could have been decided later with cooler heads and minds. Incidentally, our Premier was on a foreign visit but still managed to call you in person to address all your concerns. Regrettably, even our highest office was not honoured. Rarely does this happen in the comity of nations.

The New Zealanders did not even bother to share the kind of threat they had received. Nor were we given a chance to explain our position. Against all the principles of natural justice, we were therefore kind of ‘condemned unheard’.

Here you may say that you acted on advice, but then a true leader is not led by the circumstances, but makes the circumstances right. The buck stops at you. You were supposed to tell others what was the best course of action to be followed in the given situation and not the other way round. Your decision was bound to impact not one but two nations – in addition to the larger game of cricket. You should therefore have taken the interest of both the countries in account, and not just yours. Do you really believe you have an obligation towards your own nation only in a world that has become a global village now?

Some news reports said New Zealand’s action was guided by an alert emanating from Five Eyes, an intelligence alliance of New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. How credible had been the threats identified by these countries in the past? Do I need to remind you that only recently a humanitarian worker and nine members of his family, including seven children, were killed in a drone attack by the US believing him to be linked with the ISIS? Kabul was supposed to remain invincible in the wake of the US withdrawal, but it fell in a matter of a few days.

I have no hesitation in admitting here, ma’am, the way you handled the aftermath of the Christchurch shooting, you had endeared yourself to people all over the globe, and Pakistanis were no exception. You had come to be regarded as a stateswoman by many a person.

Ma’am, I am sure you are very well aware of the fact that cricket is the most popular sport in Pakistan. It may even be called a way of life for them. However, since Pakistan is a neighbor to Afghanistan, one of the oldest battlegrounds in Asia, we had to face a wave of terrorist attacks in the not too distant past. In one of such attacks in 2009, terrorists attempted to attack the Sri Lankan cricket team. Fortunately, it remained unscathed but then doors of international cricket at home grounds were shut on Pakistan. It took us enormous efforts of a decade or so to restore the confidence of the world that playing cricket had again become safe in Pakistan. For this to happen, and remain sustainable, we use all the resources at our disposal, and deploy the security for the visiting teams that is reserved for the visiting heads of states and governments only, not to mention the British royal family. Ask your players who had been practicing at the same venue where the first match was due about the security regime put into place for them. People had rather been saying that we were kind of overdoing the security. Also ask Brendon McCullum, your star player who captained a team in the Pakistan Super League for two years in a row, if he ever found us negligent on this account in any manner. Check with Zimbabwe, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and West Indies, who toured Pakistan in recent years if we ever failed them in any way.

Let me also tell you that the entire Pakistani nation had paid for the revival of international cricket in the country, in one way or the other. I live close to the very venue where hordes of excited cricket fans had assembled at the entry gates on September 17 for the match. For 10 days or so prior to the match, I and my family were patiently bearing complicated security check-ups as and when we travelled out of our home, or came back. In the heart of our hearts, we were satisfied that we were doing so for a national cause.

With virtually a single stroke of pen you reversed the journey which the cricket crazy nation of ours had undertaken over twelve years. A generation of cricket fans had grown up in Pakistan without having ever watched a live match in a stadium. There are now genuine fears that your action will set off a domino effect, and another era of isolation will begin. The New Zealanders have refused to play in Pakistan, the British have followed suit, and the Aussies have already started sounding wary.

The damage has been done. But to make the best of the situation now, you may like to offer the Pakistani nation a formal apology, or at least acknowledge their feelings in an official statement. You may also instruct the New Zealand Cricket Board to get in touch with their Pakistani counterparts immediately and plan a series afresh.

One hates to remind but for the sake of record let me state here that the Pakistani cricket team went to play a series in New Zealand after Brenton Tarrant had unleashed a reign of terror in New Zealand.

We have to defeat the scourge of terrorism together. The primary aim of a terrorist individual or organization is to instill fear in hearts and minds of people and disrupt the normal way of life. And the best way to defeat terrorism is not to let the terrorists succeed in their aims. You did the opposite. I am sure, Brenton would have been devilishly smiling in his prison cell today.

anwarehtasham@gmail.com