Cricket team to call off tour of Sri Lanka?

Press, 23 April 1987, Page 1

Cricket team to call off tour of Sri Lanka?

By

DAVID LEGGAT

of NZPA in Colombo

A decision was expected early this morning on whether to call off the New Zealand cricket tour of Sri Lanka.

A meeting between the New Zealand team management and senior army and security officials was set down for 7 p.m. yesterday (1.30 a.m. New Zealand time). After that, another team meeting was to be held and a final decision would be taken.

police permits were given to players to meet the Sri Lankan Cricket Board president, Mr Gamini Dissanayake, yesterday. Players were taken by taxi to meet him. Almost all the New Zealand players attended, except Danny Morrison, Ken Rutherford and Dipak Patel.

The New Zealand manager, Mr Ken Deas, said Mr Dissanayake agreed it was up to the team to decide whether the tour should go ahead.

Mr Dissanayake said unfair pressure had been placed on the players in Sri Lanka. There was more violence in the north of the country. In the Jaffna district, a Tamil stronghold, 80 terrorists were killed

and about the same number injured in fighting with Government forces yesterday. It was believed civilians was among the casualties. At Kankesanthurai on the northern, tip of Sri Lanka, 15 terrorists and four soldiers were killed in a gun battle on Tuesday. About 400 people have been killed in violence in Sri Lanka in the last five days. In Colombo, the streets were all but deserted and those vehicles on the roads were being stopped at regular intervals by the police and army officers. There was a noticeable increase in army and security presence in the immediate surrounds of the New Zealand team’s hotel. There is unanimous support within the New Zealand cricket team to call off the remainder of its tour.

The team had a meeting yesterday (Sri Lanka time) and according to Mr Deas there was a “universal” feeling that the tour should stop.

“There is disquiet within the team, a reluctance on their part to carry on playing in present circumstances,” he said.

He said the degree of feeling varied among the players. No vote was taken because "it was not needed.” Although there was a mixed reaction among the players on Tuesday over whether to continue on to Kandy for the second test, due to start tomorrow, Tuesday’s bomb blast at Pettah bus station, one kilometre from the team’s hotel, had “sharpened” the team’s attitude, Mr Deas said.

The captain of the team, Jeff Crowe, is sure his team’s performance will suffer in the second and third tests in Sri Lanka if the tour continues.

Crowe, in charge of a New Zealand touring team for the first time, said his primary concern was the feelings within the side about carrying on with the remaining six matches. The tour party has been

confined to its hotel since 8 p.m. on Tuesday (Sri Lanka time). The curfew, imposed in the wake of the Pettah bombing, was lifted for four hours yesterday morning but was reimposed at 9 a.m.

The New Zealand Cricket Council would consider the safety of the players above all other matters in deciding whether the tour will continue, said the chairman, Mr Bob Vance. The New Zealand council would not act unilaterally to cancel the tour but would respond to advice from the team management, he said. The Prime Minister, Mr Lange, said last evening he was seeking details about the New Zealand cricket team’s welfare in Sir Lanka after Tuesday’s bomb attack. However, it was up to the Cricket Council to decide whether to proceed with the tour.

Mr Lange said he was appalled by the attack, which killed at least 110 people. He would continue to watch the team’s situation closely.