DHAKA: Grief-stricken New Zealand have postponed a tour of their youth cricket team to Bangladesh, saying they were still in a ‘state of shock’ following the Christchurch mosques terror attack earlier this month.

The New Zealand U-19 cricket team was scheduled to arrive in Dhaka on April 10 to play five youth one-day matches against Bangladesh.

But the Bangladesh Cricket Board chief executive officer Nizamuddin Chowdhury said on Sunday the tour has now been postponed as the Kiwis have yet to recover fully from the shock of the racist massacre that left 50 Muslims dead.

“We have been recently communicated by the New Zealand cricket authorities that they are unable to send the youth team to Bangladesh as the country is still in a state of shock,” he said. “The series has now been postponed. It will be held at a later date.”

Bangladesh’s Test team which was on tour in New Zealand [narrowly escaped][2] the March 15 attacks. At least 17 members of the team drove up to Christchurch’s Al Noor mosque in a bus to join Friday prayers when a white supremacist gunman stormed the building, in what is thought to be the worst act of terror directed against Muslims in the West.

They later watched as blood-soaked victims staggered from the building, according to team manager Khaled Mashud, who said if they had arrived just a few minutes later the team could have been caught up in the massacre.

The team was in Christchurch for the third and final Test scheduled to begin the next day, which was promptly cancelled to allow the players to return home swiftly.

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2019