WELLINGTON: The attack by gunmen on the Sri Lankan cricket team bus in Pakistan on Tuesday was a "frightening" development in sport, New Zealand Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan said.

"It's very frightening that for the first time a cricket team are what appears to be the specific target of terrorist action," he told the media.

"That's never happened before. Previously all the incidents have been about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. "This is a very different proposition and I think just a very frightening one for world cricket."