Ian Watmore, the ECB chairman, on Wednesday apologised to Pakistan cricket and admitted the relationship between the two boards needs to be rebuilt.

In his first public comments after England withdrew from scheduled tours by their men and women to Pakistan just a few days after New Zealand had abruptly abandoned their tour of Pakistan citing a specific security threat Watmore said security was a factor but insisted that player welfare was a primary consideration. 

“I’m very sorry to anyone who feels hurt or let down by our decision, particularly in Pakistan,” CricInfo quoted Watmore as saying. 

“The decision the board made was an extremely difficult one. I won’t go into details, but we received advice on security and player welfare and took the decision we made. We had to make it quickly because of the short term to the World Cup and the New Zealand exodus from Pakistan. They were all factors, but the primary consideration was the welfare of the players.”

The tours, in October, would have been England’s first of any kind to Pakistan since 2005-06, and the first by the England women’s team.