Christchurch: Bangladesh`s cricket team left New Zealand on Saturday, less than 24 hours after narrowly avoiding being involved in the worst mass shooting in the country, which now had to accept that sporting events were likely to have been changed forever.
A lone gunman killed 49 people and wounded more than 20 during Friday prayers at two mosques in Christchurch in the country`s worst mass shooting which Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern condemned as “a terrorist attack”.
The Bangladesh team were on a bus that was approaching the Al Noor mosque, where 41 people died, on the eve of the third test at the nearby Hagley Oval when the shooting began.
The test match, which had been scheduled to start on Saturday, was cancelled after the shooting and Bangladesh`s tour abandoned.
Violent crime is extremely rare in New Zealand and the Bangladesh Cricket Board said that the attacks had now changed their perception about team security on tours.
“We`ll demand proper security wherever our team goes in the future,” BCB President Nazmul Hassan told reporters in Dhaka on Friday. “If a country provides proper security as per our demand, then we will go otherwise not.”
“I can say that everything will change after this incident.”
Pakistan`s Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari also suggested that the world governing body, the International Cricket Council, should possibly take a harder line against hosting matches in New Zealand.
“ICC should take note & perhaps suspend int cricket in NZ after this act of terrorism?” Mazari said on Twitter.
Pakistan has been unable to host matches at home since 2009 when gunmen attacked the bus carrying the Sri Lankan team to a match in Lahore. Six of the players from the visiting team were wounded and eight locals killed.
New Zealand have not toured Pakistan since 2002 following a suicide bombing outside their hotel in Karachi and instead played their games in the United Arab Emirates.
