CRICKET TOUR OF SOUTH AFRICA

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27148, 18 September 1953, Page 8

CRICKET TOUR OF SOUTH AFRICA

Departure Of N.Z. Team Delayed ARAWA HELD UP AT BLUFF The quantity of rain endured by the citizens of Bluff in the course of a normal spring might appear to have little connexion with the result of cricket matches in South Africa, but it has been sufficient this year to delay cargo operations on the liner Arawa, which is to take the New Zealand cricket team to South Africa. It appears likely now that the team, after its arrival at Cape Town, will have only three days in which to settle down and practise before it meets the strong Western Province team in the first match of the tour.

The New Zealand team was to have assembled in Wellington next Thursday, and to have embarked on the Friday evening. Advice was received in Cnristchurch yesterday, however, that the Arawa had been delayed at Bluff because rain had held up waterfront work. The team will not now meet in Wellington until Wednesday, September 30, and it will sail the next morning. A further variation in the departure date may yet be made, but the final decision will be announced today.

Cricket teams going from New Zealand to England are selected at the end of a New Zealand summer, and inevitably there is little time for the many preparations that must be made. The team for South Africa has been more fortunate. It was selected last April, and its members have been outfitted, inoculated and vaccinated with time to spare.

In Wellington, the team and members of the management committee of the New Zealand Cricket Council will be the guests of the Prime Minister (Mr Holland) at a private farewell function. The council will bid farewell to the players at a further function.