Fax message to N.Z. team

Press, 22 January 1988, Page 4

Fax message to N.Z. team

The New Zealand cricket team will go into today’s first match of the best-of-three finals against Australia, buoyed by a facsimile message of good will from hundreds of Canterbury supporters. Signatures, collected over the last few days by Telecom and Christchurch Radio 3ZB, will be transmitted, free of charge, by Telecom to the team’s dressing room at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The signatures were collected, petition-style, at a Telecom booth in Cathedral Square, which will be open again for a time this morning. A Telecom spokesman, Mr Mike Egan, said that about 25 sheets had been filled by late yesterday

afternoon, and another 10 sheets were circulating in various businesses. At 25 names a sheet, with room for a brief comment from each wellwisher, the total could reach about 1000 signatures by the time the message is sent today. Mr Egan had been disappointed with the poor initial response, which he attributed to difficulty in finding the booth. For the last two days, the booth, near the Post Office, has been marked by an unbrella carrying the Telecom logo. Telecom is also offering to send longer individual messages to the cricketers, at the cut rate of $1 a message.