Just when it seemed that the Zimbabwe problem had been cleared, Kenya has cropped up. New Zealand today said its team would not play its scheduled World Cup match in Nairobi next month, claiming the security risk for players was too high. After a day-long board meeting on Friday, New Zealand Cricket (NZC) said it did not believe the ICC’s decision to stage a match in Nairobi 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’’, NZC said in a statement. Chief tournament organiser Ali Bacher said on Friday that NZC’s decision was ‘‘unfortunate’’ and added that the match would not be switched to South Africa and the Black Caps would lose their points. NZC said it would now resolve the matter through ‘‘legal processes’’ but gave no details. It has potential recourse to a six-man ICC technical committee — whose members include ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed, Bacher, Sunil Gavaskar and Michael Holding — that has the power from Sunday to consider any appeal to move matches for security reasons. Reacting to the decision, New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming accepted that his side now faced a tougher task in the tournament. New Zealand had been widely tipped to progress to the semi-finals but now the pressure to win their first three matches has increased. ‘‘It changes the landscape of the cup quite a bit’’, Fleming said. ‘‘It all comes down to our first three games now.’’ They play Sri Lanka on February 10, West Indies on February 13 and South Africa on February 16. Indeed, the decision will affect the Kiwis even if they make the Super Six. Under a new points scheme, teams qualifying for the second phase carry a quarter of the points gained against the teams not qualifying. With four points for a win, and New Zealand were expected to beat Kenya, the Kiwis would have taken a point into the Super Six phase, where qualification for the semi-finals hangs by such slender margins. But there were no regrets about making the decision not to go to Kenya, according to coach Jeff Crowe. ‘‘We took the team interests to heart and the interests of the players are paramount’’, Crowe said. ‘‘Last year in Karachi was too close for comfort.’’ A terrorist bomb outside the team hotel during their tour of Pakistan prompted the cancellation of the rest of the itinerary. Security fears about Kenya were heightened after a suicide bombing killed 16 people in an attack on an Israeli-owned hotel in the city of Mombasa in November. Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network claimed resposibility for the bombing. (Reuters)
