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The main evening news and TV3 has a chilling revelation for us. But did they really? For the great unwashed, we provide balance to one the most misleading and cynically worded items ever to lead a National News bulletin. The “exclusive” is to be found here. You can also download the video, but that really is not the best way to treat your bandwidth limit. “In a chilling revelation, the Black Caps have revealed that they were due to stay at Islamabad's Marriott Hotel last weekend.” OK, this is the crux of the story. But for the grace of the New Zealand Professional Cricketers’ Association, our players would have lost their lives last weekend had the ICC Champions Trophy gone ahead. Big news indeed, except that is not actually the case, as the item later goes on to admit in a carefully worded roundabout kind of way. "From all reports we were going to be at that hotel that weekend in the original draft of the Champions Trophy," Black Caps' Kyle Mills said. " From all reports? Only from all reports that were out of date. Islamabad was taken off the schedule a good month before the trophy was cancelled. Therefore, that immediately makes the first sentence misleading to say the least. That is the sort of comment that would get you censured by a Parliamentary Privileges Committee, because later events superseded it. And Kyle Mills, being the brother of Heath Mills; players' association representative would be perfectly aware of that. However, the fact that Islamabad was only ever on the original schedule, and the family ties with the random Black Cap making these comments were brushed over. Predictably, the item then went on to some more strange spin
It is understood that the ground wasn’t up to scratch? By whom?? The Pakistan Cricket Board was desperate to host this, and was prepared to make all sorts of concessions to appease Western fears and superstitions to continue hosting this. There was even the symbolic offer to change the start date of the tournament. On no cricket site, official or otherwise, has there ever been any indication that the Rawalpindi ground was not up to scratch. In fact, the pitch has always been considered a bit of a road, which suits ODIs perfectly. And when the change of schedule was announced the reasons were clear, logical and security related. In any case, what relevance does that have to the initial “chilling revelation”? But wait, there’s more. The hotel was was (sic) a popular meeting place for westerners and a terrorism expert says it is possible that the Black Caps and other teams scheduled to stay at the hotel were the original targets. Here, TV3 dramatically jumps the shark. The notion that Pakistan bombs kill Westerners, Indian bombs kill anyone is now widely used as a counter-thrust to the perception by many that there are some serious double-standards going on with regards to the Players Associations in the west treat terrorism in India and Pakistan so differently. Remember that the money in Indian cricket these days is astronomical. As the world’s leading cricket blog so eloquently noted it's hard to hear bombs while you are counting your money. But for an (unnamed) terrorism expert to say that it is possible that the Black Caps were the original target is really stretching it. Remember that Rawilpindi was removed as a venue as for back as 11th August; 6 weeks before the bombings took place. We are not suggesting that TV3 was trying to promote a theory that the terrorists live in remote caves and have little contact with the outside world, but it comes across a bit that way. The item concluded with young Tim Southee being put up as a spokesman for the players. The imagery here was of the fresh, innocent face of NZ Cricket, who has made only one trip abroad fearing for his future. More subtle, but still pretty cynical. No-one is saying that the ICC Trophy should not have been postponed. Pakistan is clearly a dangerous country, and the resignation of Musharaf in the week leading up to the postponement made it even more so. But such emotional and inaccurate piece, based on some major leaps of logic is tawdry reporting, and does nothing to help the state of international cricket or the reputation of the New Zealand media. Comments here
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