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| Test Cricket Tours - Sri Lanka to New Zealand 1996-97
| Tour of
New Zealand 1996-97 Captain: Arjuna Ranatunga | | | | | © Test Cricket Tours | | | Sri Lanka’s nineteenth Test tour (February
- March 1997) Fourth
Test-playing tour of New Zealand by Sri Lanka (previous
Test tour 1994-95) | Winning the World Cup in 1996
gave Sri Lankan cricket a tremendous boost and eroded the reluctance on the
part of several countries to invite them on a full programme of tours. The Executive Committee of
the Sri Lankan Board gave the go-ahead to pick Gurusinha despite his being
disciplined for speaking to the media without permission. But the left-handed
batsman turned down his place after being ordered to report home for a
training camp. He wanted to join the tour direct from his club in Melbourne
for training, He was fined for writing about it in the press, though he never
paid, bringing his Sri Lankan Test career to a close. There was no time for
preparation for the Tests, came at the coldest time of the New Zealand season. Muralitharan was cleared to carry on bowling after the
accusations in Australia
but for the first time Sri
Lanka would rely more on their pacers,
Vaas being joined by two other left-armers, Nuwan Soyza and Sajeewa Silva with
the experienced Pramodya Wickremasinghe and Ravindra Pushpakumara to complete
the five pronged pace attack. Zoysa, the 6' 4" left-arm fast bowler, turned out to be
the find of the tour. | Other
Sri Lankan Tours Previous
tour To Australia
1995-96 Next
tour To West Indies 1996-97 Next
tour of New Zealand2004-05 | | | ⋆Members of the Test tour party (15
+ 2) Opening batsmen: Marvan
Atapattu, Sanath Jayasuriya, Dulip Samaraweera. Middle-order batsmen:Aravinda de Silva, Arjuna Ranatunga, Roshan
Mahanama, Wicket-keeper: Romesh
Kaluwitharana Spin bowlers: Kumar
Dharmasena, Muttiah Muralitharan Fast bowlers: Sajeewa de
Silva, Chaminda Vaas, Ravindra Pushpakumara, Pramodya Wickremasinghe, Nuwan
Zoysa. | M S Atapattu | SSC | 24 | RHB
opener | ODI | | K S C
de Silva | NCC | 26 | LFM
swing | ODI | | P A de
Silva | NCC | 31 | RHB vice-captain | ODI | | H D K
Dharmasena | Bf'd | 25 | OB | ODI | | S T Jayasuriya | Bf'd | 27 | LHB
opener SLA | ODI | | R S Kaluwitharana | Ct | 27 | RHB WK | ODI | | R S Mahanama | Bf'd | 30 | RHB | ODI | | M Muralitharan | T U | 24 | OB | ODI | | K R Pushpakumara | NCC | 21 | RFM | ODI | | A Ranatunga | SSC | 33 | LHB captain | ODI | | D P Samaraweera | Ct | 25 | RHB opener | | | H P Tillakaratne | NCC | 29 | LHB reserve WK | ODI | | C U Vaas | Ct | 23 | LFM | ODI | | G P Wickremasinghe | SSC | 25 | RFM | | | D N T
Zoysa | SSC | 18 | LFM | ODI | | The following were members of | U D U Chandana | ODI | the one- day international squad | R S Kalpage | ODI |
| Average
age of team at time of first Test
match (7 March 1997) : 26
yrs 4 months. Club representation B'fd: Bloomfield
(3) Ct: Colts Cricket Club (3) NCC: Nondescripts (4) SSC: Sinhalese Sports Club (4) TU: Tamil Union (1) Key to type : LHB left-hand bat, LBG leg break and googly bowler, OB off break, SLA slow left-arm bowler, RFM right arm fast medium bowler ODI
Member of the squad for ODIs | | | Test Appearances made before the tour | Ranatunga 63, Aravinda
de Silva 55, Mahanama 39, Tillekeratne 38, Muralitharan 25, Wickremasinghe 23, Jayasuriya 19, Vaas 14, Dharmasena 11, Kalpage 8, Kaluwitharana 8, Pushpakumara 8, Samaraweera 7, Atapattu 3, Chandana 0, Sajeewa de Silva 0, Zoysa 0. | | | | Tour Officials | Duleep
Mendis | Manager | Bruce
Yardley | Coach | Alex
Kountouri | Physio |
| | | | Selectors | L R D Mendis (chairman),
R S Madugalle, T B Kehelgamuwa, R L Dias, S Wettimuny. In January
1997 the Cricket Board sought the Sports Minister`s approval to co-opt
Yardley onto the selection committee. | | | | Selection | The chosen team was given
ratification by the Sports Minister, S.B. Dissanayake. When had Murali been cleared? Tour
Party Announced : 6 February 1997 Withdrawal :
Asanka Gurusinha dropped out of the team after selection, being
replaced by Samaraweera. Gurusinha had
been asked to return home for training by 8 February. | Time
between selection and departure from Sri Lanka 17 days (6
February to 23 February) | | | Travel Colombo Q Auckland | Left early on Sunday morning 23 February from
Katunayake for New Zealand.
Arrived at Auckland 25 February, flew to Christchurch 26 February
1997, went to Taupo for an extra match the next day, arranged at the Sri
Lankans' request. | Time
spent in New Zealand x days (25
February - March) | | | On-tour selection panel | Arjuna Ranatunga, Aravinda de Silva, Bruce Yardley, Duleep Mendis. | | | | Reinforcements
(2) | U D U
Chandana | TU | 24 | RHB LB |
All-rounder Upul Chandana and spion bowler Ruwan Kalpage replaced Dulip Samaraweera and Pramodya Wickremasinghe, who returned to
Sri Lanka
after the First Test. | | | | Fixtures/Results | a | †
Taupo | Northern
Districts (2 day) | Drawn | b | Gisborne | New Zealand A | abandoned | c | DUNEDIN | NEW ZEALAND First Test | LOST inns 36
r | d | HAMILTON | NEW ZEALAND Second Test | LOST 120 r | e | † Napier | Central
Districts | Won 6
w | f | § Auckland | New Zealand (1st ODI) | abandoned | g | § Christchurch | New Zealand (2nd ODI) | Won 6
w | h | § Wellington | New Zealand (3rd ODI) | Lost
69 r |
| † not first-class § one-day international Time spent in before First Test: 15
days (25 February - 7 March) | | | Test appearances on tour | 2 - Aravinda
de Silva, Jayasuriya, Kaluwitharana, Mahanama, Muralitharan, Ranatunga,
Tillekeratne, Vaas, Zoysa. 1 - Atapattu,
Dharmasena, Sajeewa deSilva, Wickremasinghe. 0 -
Pushpakumara, Samaraweera. | | | | Match appearances T Test match o one-day international x other match ⊕ T/20 international - teams not announced W won L lost D drawn T tie N no result A abandoned u unknown result C cancelled | | a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | M S Atapattu | x | | T | | o | | | | U Chandana | | | | | o | | o | o | KSC de Silva | x | | | T | o | | | | P A de Silva | | | T | T | o | | o | o | HDK Dharmasena | x | | | T | o | | o | o | S T Jayasuriya | | | T | T | o | | o | o | R S Kaluwitharana | x | | T | T | o | | o | o | R S Kalpage | | | | | o | | | | R S Mahanama | x | | T | T | | | o | o | M Muralitharan | x | | T | T | | | o | o | R Pushpakumara | x | | | | o | | | | A Ranatunga | x | | T | T | o | | o | o | D P Samaraweera | x | | | | | | | | H P Tillekeratne | x | | T | T | o | | o | o | C U Vaas | x | | T | T | | | o | o | P Wickremasinghe | | | T | | | | | | D N T Zoysa | | | T | T | | | o | o | R E
S U L T S | D | A | L | L | W | A | W | L |
| | | | Highlights | • Vaas took the hat-trick v Northern Districts. • Muralitharan became the first
Sri Lankan to take 100 Test wickets. | | | | Tour Summary | | F | W | L | D | Aban | Test Matches | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | - | Other first-class
matches | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ϯ Minor matches | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | - | § One-day
internationals | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | All Matches | 8 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| F Fixtures W Won
L Lost
D Drawn T Tied Canc Cancelled
Aban abandoned | | | Return to Sri Lanka Wellington Q Colombo | Last match in Wellington ended 27
March . | Time
away from Sri Lanka x
days (23
February - March) | | | | | | | | Other
Test tours in 1996-97 | Australians to England to | © 2015 | | | Acknowledgements
To
general reading of The Times newspaper
digital archive (Gale Group); Jamaica Gleanor
archive; National Library of Australia
Trove; Papers Past NZ. From
former British Newspaper Library, Colindale and online: The Age, Melbourne Argus, Bangladesh Daily
Star, Barbados Advocate, Canberra Times, Daily Telegraph, Dawn, Eastern Daily
Press, The Hindu, The Independent (Dhaka), Indian Express, The Island
(Lanka), Lahore Times, New Nation, New Zealand Auckland Herald, Sri Lanka
Daily News, Stabroek News, Straits Times, Sydney Morning Herald, The
Telegraph (Calcutta), Times of India , The Tribune Chandigarh, Trinidad
Guardian, The West Australian. cricketweb.net; ESPN cricinfo; cricket archive; www.cricketcountry;
www.coverpoint Magazines/periodicals
including Australian Cricket, B & H West Indies Annual, The Cricketer
International, Cricketer Quarterly, Indian Cricket, Indian Cricket Field
Annual, Playfair Cricket Monthly, Shell Cricket Almanack of New Zealand,
Wisden Cricket Monthly, Wisden Book of Test Cricket, Wisden’s Cricketers’
Almanack. Men In
White, A History of Australian Cricket (Harte), A History of Indian Cricket
(Bose), A History of West Indies Cricket
(Manley) Biography and tour books (own collection and at the M.C.C.
Library at Lord’s Ground) © ALL CONTENTS OF THE
TEST-CRICKET-TOURS.CO.UK WEBSITE ARE COPYRIGHT | |
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