Kiwis Still Hesitant Tourists

Richardson - unconvincing appeal.

New Zealand cricket players remain unconvinced that Pakistan can deliver a safe Champions Trophy tournament despite meeting an International Cricket Council delegation sent to assuage their fears.

The ICC group, led by their general manager of cricket, David Richardson, and including Pakistan coach and former Australia fast bowler Geoff Lawson, met with the players and New Zealand Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan in Christchurch on Thursday, before attending another meeting later in the day with the NZC board.

But New Zealand Cricket Players' Association executive manager Heath Mills said the meeting had not convinced his organisation to change their stance and recommend players to travel to next month's one-day tournament.

"They made a presentation and we certainly appreciate that every effort has been made by the Pakistan Cricket Board and the government to ensure the security plans are at the highest level," Mills said.

"But the fact remains we still have concerns about threats, particularly in light of the political situation in Pakistan at the moment and the events of the last 12-24 hours.

"Our biggest concern is the ability of the Pakistan authorities to deliver the security plans and our concerns in those areas have not been eased following the visit of the taskforce."

Players in New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and England have expressed their concern about holding the tournament in Pakistan following a spate of bombings in recent months.

Mills added: "Right from the word go we've had concerns about going and we don't think it was the right decision at this point in time to continue with the event in Pakistan and nothing has changed there."

With the tournament set to start on September 12, the pressure is building for a resolution to the situation but with the taskforce due to meet players in Australia on Friday and another delegation to meet the English and South Africans before taking the feedback back to the ICC, Mills does not expect any decisions immediately.

"It will be interesting to see what (the ICC delegation) report back after their visits - once they've got pretty strong feedback from those four groups - and see what the ICC are going to do next week," Mills added.

If the ICC continues to insist the tournament goes ahead in Pakistan it is likely that some of the world's leading players will not be there with the four countries either boycotting the tournament or sending under-strength sides.

"(The discussion we've had) certainly hasn't changed the view of our players and our players were quite vocal in the meeting and I couldn't see how it would change the view of other players around the world either," Mills concluded.