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| Thursday, 30 December 2004 |
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Lanka cancel rest of Kiwi cricket tour by Sa'adi Thawfeeq Sri Lanka Cricket eventually decided to abandon the rest of their current tour of New Zealand yesterday after coming to a mutual agreement with New Zealand Cricket that the tour would be rescheduled for a later date. There was a lot of pressure brought on SLC from the national team in New Zealand following the tragedy and devastation of human lives in Sri Lanka following tsunami disaster on Boxing Day. Some of the national players' relatives were tragically involved in the disaster which has left more than 20,000 people dead and millions homeless. With the casualty figures mounting daily the players were in no proper frame of mind to play cricket. They said their obligation was to be with the people of Sri Lanka and share their sorrow and be engaged in the rebuilding process at the hour of need. SLC was initially adamant that the tour should go ahead as scheduled. But with pressure mounting and the casualty situation rising to unexpected proportions they had no alternative but to call off the tour. "The host board (NZC) had to agree on the cancellation of the tour. We were successful in negotiating with NZC for the cancellation today," said SLC director operations Bandula Warnapura. "Both cricket boards have mutually agreed to reschedule the tour at some appropriate time in the future," he said. SLC president Mohan de Silva thanked NZC for accommodating their request to cancel the rest of the tour. He said that SLC were caught in a tricky situation when NZC were not too happy to call off the tour initially, but instead suggested an alternative to reschedule the matches and play them after the five-day period of mourning. Sri Lanka was scheduled to play a series of five one-day internationals and two Tests on their five-week tour of New Zealand. But only the first one-day international was played at Auckland which New Zealand won by seven wickets. The rest of the tour was put on hold till January 2 following the tsunami disaster. The second game scheduled for yesterday at Napier was postponed for January 11 to avoid the five-day period of mourning declared by the Sri Lankan government. Warnapura said arrangements were being made for the players to fly back home on the earliest available flight. He said that they were due back home by December 31. The ICC said on Tuesday that there was always the option for a country to postpone a tour with the agreement of the host country. Early this year Australia postponed its Test series in Zimbabwe by mutual agreement between the two Cricket boards. A press release by SLC yesterday said: "The Sri Lankan cricketers have always stood by the people of this country in good times and bad times. The cancellation of this tour will enable the Sri Lankan cricketers to join Sri Lanka Cricket to assist the victims affected by this grave disaster." De Silva said that SLC staff would concentrate on rehabilitation and relief measures throughout its various centres around the country. Meanwhile Martin Snedden, the former Test fast bowler and chief executive of NZC told cricket website Cricinfo: "As the magnitude of the recent events in Sri Lanka have unfolded, it has become more difficult for the Sri Lankan team to remain in New Zealand. We can understand their decision as the players are expected to play a meaningful role back home with the rest of the people in Sri Lanka. We will now give the Sri Lankan cricket team every assistance to return home as soon as possible." The website asked its readers whether Sri Lanka should continue the tour of New Zealand amid the present circumstances and 90 percent responded in the negative. Under 19 tour cancelled Sri Lanka Cricket decided yesterday to cancel its scheduled under 19 cricket tour to Pakistan following the abandoning of the national cricket team's tour of New Zealand. "The under 19 tour has been postponed indefinitely," said SLC sources. Earlier plans were to reschedule the itinerary to avoid the five-day mourning period which ends on December 31, and go ahead with the tour. |
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