TWO PLAYERS APOLOGISE N.Z. Cricketers Called Bad Sportsmen

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30820, 4 August 1965, Page 19

TWO PLAYERS APOLOGISE N.Z. Cricketers Called Bad Sportsmen

(From R. T. BRITTENDEN, N.Z P.A. Special Correspondent.)

BERMUDA, August 3.

Bitter criticism of the sportsmanship of the New Zealand cricket team appeared in an article by Joe Brown in the “Bermuda Mid-Ocean News” yesterday evening. “To most Bermudians, our visitors haven’t proved good ambassadors of their country,” Brown said.

I le referred to a remark made on Sunday by a New Zealand player to an umpire after he had given a batsman out and had then said he was going to change his decision. The umpire finally did give the batsman out.

The New Zealand player and another who commented yesterday have since apologised to the umpire concerned for their choice of words. Brown quoted an unnamed official as saying that New Zealanders seemed to think that ’ll decisions made by umpires should be in their favour. Another man, described merely as a “high-ranking figure” in Bermuda, said it wast the worst team he had seen performing in Bermuda. “Even the Pakistanis who

walked off the field in disgust several years ago in protest of local umpiring were not this bad.” Several other comments in the article are based on entirely erroneous grounds and they were dealt with in a long statement issued to the newspaper this evening by the manager of the New Zealand team, Mr W. A. Hadlee. It is an unhappy fact that the game was regarded, perhaps, a little too seriously, especially by local supporters, who have a very high opinion of their players’ capabilities, not all of it unfounded. There was more than a hint of national pride, and it did

not require actual observation to discover a reflection of the problems of coloured and whites in Bermudan cricket in the extreme eagerness of the home team to win this match.

It was a pity that there was acrimony from both sides on the field and that too many bouncers were bowled by both sides.

Mr Hadlee, in the statement, said that the article must have created a totally wrong impression of the New Zealand team, and he was supported in this by Mr F. Simmons, president and chairman of the Bermuda Cricket Board of Control,