Former Blackcaps opening batsman Mark Richardson has backed the decision to abandon the NZ cricket tour of Pakistan, after a security alert on the eve of their one-day opener at Rawalpindi.
The NZ cricketers have been withdrawn from the trouble nation amid concerns for their safety, and counterclaims from local cricket authorities that the alert was a "hoax" and the cancellation was a death knell for the sport in Pakistan.
The scare was far from the first such incident in a country that saw no test cricket for a decade, after the Sri Lankan team bus was attacked by gunmen at Lahore in 2009.
New Zealand had not toured Pakistan since 2003, after a bomb exploded outside the team hotel the previous year. This visit would have broken an 18-year absence, but even before it started, NZ Cricket and the Government carefully monitored unrest in neighbouring Afghanistan for any possible risk.
Richardson was on that 2002 tour, which was also abandoned immediately, and sympathises with both sides.
"I can understand the criticism coming out of Pakistan, but while I put myself in their shoes and understand their disappointment, they have to put themselves in our shoes and realise that for the tour to go ahead, the authorities need to be 100 percent certain that there is 100 percent safety," he tells Newshub.
"If there was a skerrick of doubt in their minds, they could not forgive themselves if something happened - it's not a chance you can take with fellow New Zealanders, so unfortunately I agree with the decision."
Richardson remembers feeling powerless in the immediate aftermath of that 2002 bombing, as he and his teammates were quickly evacuated from Pakistan.
"It was frightening," he says. "It was the feeling of knowing nothing was in your control any longer - you were helpless, you didn't know what was going and there was a feeling of insecurity.
"Later on that day, the bus ride to the airport, with no-one on the streets, and a tank in front of us, a tank behind us and flanked by the army... it's just not a situation that anyone really should be in.
"I would hope the players were made aware of the new threat, but how can you expect them to represent their country to the best of their ability, because their mindsets would be completely thrown off."
Details of the Blackcaps' departure are - understandably - kept secret, although Richardson guesses it may involve army helicopters landing on their hotel roof.
"Clearly, the NZ authorities will be nervous and just have to get them out of there as safely as they can - that's the No.1 priority - then deal with the cricketing and political fallout, once our players are safe.
"The Pakistan government and Pakistan cricket authority... the future of the sport in their country totally relies on getting them out of the country now and I'm sure they will do a great job of doing that."
Many of the Blackcaps' frontline players were not on this tour, saving themselves for next week's Indian Premier League restart and T20 World Cup, where New Zealand have drawn Pakistan in their tournament opener on October 26.
