The

New Zealand national cricket team The New Zealand national cricket team represents New Zealand in men's international cricket. Named the Black Caps, they played their first Test in 1930 against England in Christchurch, becoming the fifth country to play Test cricket. From 1930 ...

's tour of Sri Lanka in 1992–93 was the second

Test cricket Test cricket is a form of first-class cricket played at international level between teams representing full member countries of the International Cricket Council (ICC). A match consists of four innings (two per team) and is scheduled to last fo ...

series played in Sri Lanka since the previous New Zealand tour of the country had been cut short following the Colombo central bus station bombing in 1987. The tour was almost called off before it had started following a suicide bomb attack which saw the assassination of Vice-Admiral

Clancy Fernando Admiral Wannakuwatta Waduge Erwin Clancy Fernando VSV, USP, MSc, ndc, psc, MNI, SLN (In Sinhalese: ක්ලැන්සි ෆර්නැන්ඩෝ) (10 October 1938 – 16 November 1992) was the Commander of the Sri Lanka Navy fr ...

and three other naval officers by Tamil separatists. The assassination took place only 50 metres from the team's hotel in

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...

and led to several players returning home.The New Zealanders in Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka, 1992–93
''

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

'', 1994. Retrieved 2022-07-27. The tour took place in November and December 1992. New Zealand had toured Zimbabwe immediately before flying to Sri Lanka to play three Test matches and three

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

s (ODIs), a series of matches which '' Wisden'' described as being intended as "a confidence-boosting exercise to develop some of New Zealand's emerging players". Following the suicide bombing one Test match was cancelled and a number of replacement players joined the tour party. Sri Lanka won the Test series 1–0, with one match drawn, and the ODI series 2–0, with the first ODI ending without a result following heavy rain.

Tour party

A fifteen-man squad had been announced on 4 September for both the tour of Zimbabwe and the subsequent tour of Sri Lanka, with the side's established

wicket-keeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. Th ...

Ian Smith having retired following the

1992 Cricket World Cup The 1992 Cricket World Cup (officially the Benson & Hedges World Cup 1992) was the fifth staging of the Cricket World Cup, organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was held in Australia and New Zealand from 22 February to 25 Mar ...

. Before the tour of Zimbabwe began two players, Chris Cairns and Danny Morrison, were replaced due to injuries, with

Simon Doull Simon may refer to: People * Simon (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name Simon * Simon (surname), including a list of people with the surname Simon * Eugène Simon, French naturalist and the genus ...

and

Mark Haslam Mark James Haslam (born 26 September 1972) is a former New Zealand international cricketer who played in four Test cricket, Test matches and a single One Day International between 1992 and 1995. Mark Haslam was a slow left-arm orthodox spin bow ...

called into the side. Doull was injured during the tour of Zimbabwe and was replaced by

Chris Pringle Christopher Pringle (born 26 January 1968) is a New Zealand former cricketer. A fast bowler, medium-fast bowler, he played 14 Test cricket, Tests and 64 One Day Internationals (ODI) for New Zealand cricket team, New Zealand between 1990 and 1 ...

for the Sri Lankan leg of the tour. The side was captained by Martin Crowe, with Andrew Jones as vice-captain. The tour manager was Leif Dearsley.Test Cricket Tours – New Zealand to Zimbabwe & Sri Lanka 1992–93
Test Cricket Tours (archived June 2020). Retrieved 2022-07-30. The tour party was initially made up of: Following the bombing in Colombo, which occurred close to the New Zealand team's hotel, the team considered abandoning the tour. A vote initially split the players and Peter McDermott, the chairman of the New Zealand Cricket Board, flew to the country to negotiate with them.Lee A (1992) England tour in doubt, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', 17 November 1992, p. 40.
Available online
at The Times Digital Archive . Retrieved 2022-07-29.) ''Wisden'' reported that McDermott was concerned about compensation that would need to be paid to the Sri Lankan Cricket Board if the tour was cancelled and was under pressure from the New Zealand government which wasiaming to improve trade-relations with Sri Lanka. He convinced enough players to continue the tour, although Crowe was critical of the decision and considered that he had been directed to continue as captain against his wishes.N Zealand opt to continue tour, ''

'', 19 November 1992, p. 46.
Available online
at The Times Digital Archive . Retrieved 2022-07-29.)Crowe says he was ordered to carry on, ''

'', 20 November 1992, p. 44.
Available online
at The Times Digital Archive . Retrieved 2022-07-29.) Five players, Greatbatch, Larsen, Latham, Patel and Watson, chose to leave the tour and return to New Zealand, as did the team coach

Warren Lees Warren Kenneth Lees (born 19 March 1952) is a New Zealand cricketer and coach (sport), coach. He played 21 Test and 31 ODIs from 1976 to 1983 as a wicket-keeper batsman. He was coach of the Black Caps from 1990 to 1993. Domestic career He ...

. They were replaced by

Grant Bradburn Grant Eric Bradburn (born 26 May 1966 in Hamilton, New Zealand) is a New Zealand cricket coach and former cricketer. A tall right-arm off-spin bowler and lower-order batsman, Bradburn played seven Test matches and eleven One Day Internationals ...

, Michael Owens,

Justin Vaughan Justin Thomas Caldwell Vaughan (born 30 August 1967) is a former New Zealand cricketer who played six Test matches and 18 One Day Internationals between 1992 and 1997. He is a doctor of medicine by profession. Life and career Vaughan was an al ...

and veteran batsman John Wright, who had previously made himself unavailable for the tour. Crowe took over as the main coach for the team. Owens and Vaughan were the only uncapped players on the tour; both made their international debut in the first Test match. Sri Lanka were captained by

Arjuna Ranatunga Deshamanya Arjuna Ranatunga ( si, අර්ජුන රණතුංග; ta, அர்ஜூன ரணதுங்க; born 1 December 1963), is a former Sri Lankan cricketer and politician, who was the 1996 Cricket World Cup winning captain ...

throughout the tour.

Tour itinerary

The tour was originally scheduled to include three Test matches, with matches due to be played at

Kandy Kandy ( si, මහනුවර ''Mahanuwara'', ; ta, கண்டி Kandy, ) is a major city in Sri Lanka located in the Central Province. It was the last capital of the ancient kings' era of Sri Lanka. The city lies in the midst of hills ...

from 21 to 26 November,

Moratuwa Moratuwa ( si, මොරටුව, ta, மொறட்டுவை) is a large suburb of Colombo, on the southwestern coast of Sri Lanka, near Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia. It is situated on the Galle–Colombo (Galle road) main highway, south o ...

from 5 to 10 December and at

from 12 to 17 December. Following the suicide bombing in Colombo this was reduced to two Tests, with no match played at Kandy and the dates of the other matches on the tour changed. A three-day warm up match which was scheduled to start on 17 November, the day after the bombing, was cancelled and replaced by two one-day matches against a Sri Lankan Cricket Board XI.New Zealand in Sri Lanka in 1992/93
CricketArchive . Retrieved 2022-07-30. The New Zealand team flew from Zimbabwe to Singapore before transferring to Sri Lanka.

Test series

The revised two-match Test series was won 1–0 by Sri Lanka, with the first Test drawn.

First Test

Second Test

One Day International series

Sri Lanka won the series 2-0 with one match ending as no-result.

Notes

References

1992 in New Zealand cricket 1992 in Sri Lankan cricket

1992-93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since the ...

International cricket competitions from 1991–92 to 1994 Sri Lankan cricket seasons from 1972–73 to 1999–2000 {{SriLanka-cricket-tour-stub