Pakistan: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has announced it will donate all proceeds from a recently played one-day international with New Zealand to victims of Peshawar school massacre.
The PCB said in a statement on Thursday that all proceeds of the match between Pakistan and New Zealand would go to the victims of the December 16 attack on a military-run school in the northwestern city of Peshawar.
Sources say all proceeds will be spent on affected families and toward rebuilding of the school.
A group of Taliban militants dressed in military uniforms stormed the school in Peshawar, walking from classroom to classroom and shooting at students. The attack claimed the lives of over 140 people, mostly children, and injured scores of others.
Pakistani players kept wearing black armbands during the match in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, on Wednesday.
New Zealand won the fourth one-day international by seven runs. New Zealand’s Kane Williamson, a right-hand top-order batsman, showed best performance by hitting 123 runs from 105 balls.
Pakistan’s cricket team has played most of its home matches in the Middle East since 2009, when a bus carrying the Sri Lanka players on its way to play in Lahore was attacked by gunmen.
“We are playing outside Pakistan only because of the threat of terrorism at home,” media outlets quoted a PCB spokesman as saying, adding, “If we allow terrorists to disrupt our matches abroad, then all will be lost.”
The Pakistan cricket team has become one of the most successful teams in modern cricket.
The team reached the semifinals of the 1979, 1983, 1987 World Cups, and finals in 1992 and 1999, and won the 1992 ICC Cricket World Cup by defeating England in the final.
