Cricket: Security threat for Black Caps in Pakistan tour brings back 'chilling memories' for those on 2002 tour

Pakistan's army and police officers stand guard at the Pindi Cricket Stadium, where play didn't get underway because of a security threat. Photo / AP

Last night's cancellation of the Black Caps tour in Pakistan due to security threats has brought back "chilling memories" for those who experienced the 2002 bomb attack.

Yesterday New Zealand Cricket made the decision to abandon the Pakistan tour due to the information they had received from security advisors.

It was the first time the Black Caps had toured Pakistan since 2003, and the year before New Zealand had abandoned their test series in Pakistan following a suicide bomb attack outside their Karachi hotel.

New Zealand cricket commentator Bryan Waddle, who had been in Pakistan on the 2002 tour, said last night's news had brought back "chilling memories".

"It's a frightening scenario … I've still got photos of my hotel room which was totally damaged by the bomb, with glass everywhere all over the place.

"There was no bomb around the team hotel on this occasion but obviously serious enough threat to safety that the decision had to be taken."

He expected the cricketers would be quickly moved out of Pakistan, as had happened in 2002, and said the team may need support.

"People will have different reactions I'm sure," he said.

"Back in 2002 I don't know if we got any such thing as counselling but some of them might need some counselling to some extent.

"The players are going to find it hard enough now whatever happens to them – we don't know where they're going to go.

"It's just a matter of supporting the players and those who are there, because they will be going through an uncertain time in the lockdown they'll be in now in Pakistan."

Cricket commentator Bryan Waddle was on the 2002 Pakistan tour. Photo / Marty Melville

Former Black Caps batsman Matt Horne told Newstalk ZB this morning the news from Pakistan had brought back memories from the 2002 tour.

He said the 2002 bomb blast had also been on the first morning of a test match.

"You're in a bubble ready to play and getting absorbed with what you're going to be faced with for that day,' he said.

"And then your day gets turned upside down and it's so surreal and not like anything you've ever experienced."

Horne described being at breakfast in the hotel and then seeing walls reverberating.

"It was until we got down to reception and you look down to where the team bus was going to leave," he said.

"It's just billowing black smoke and then I saw an individual with a limb missing, and just went into shock."

A Pakistani police officer stands guard an enclosure of the Pindi Cricket Stadium, where play between the Black Caps and Pakistan didn't begin due to a security threat. Photo / AP

He said the team had been unable to get information to family at home until Waddle got a line through and became the main feed.

After arriving in Pakistan on September 11, the Black Caps were scheduled to play five Twenty20s in Lahore to follow the three one-day matches in Rawalpindi.

In spite of the 2002 bomb attack, Waddle was not surprised the tour had gone ahead, saying he expected they had "taken into account every security angle they had investigated".

"It wasn't a major surprise but there always was, in my mind, an element of risk – that the same thing might occur and they might have to take the same action.

"But that would [have been] a tough decision, because you made the effort and paid all the money to go there, you expect it to be successful.

"We really need to wait for official confirmation of the reasoning behind the decision and I think they need to be forthcoming with that information."