‘Cricket is the last thing on our minds’

Sri Lanka was scheduled to play the second of five limited-overs internationals against New Zealand on Wednesday at Napier, but that match has been postponed to a tentative date of January 11. The third match at Queenstown is scheduled for Sunday, which New Zealand officials hope will be go ahead as planned.

“The last thing on our minds right now is cricket,” manager Brendon Kuruppu said at a news conference in Napier today. “One player’s relative has lost his life and so many others have no contact with their relatives. It is a very sad situation for us.”

Kuruppu said several issues needed to be resolved before it could be decided whether the team would play its remaining matches. “It’s too early. It’s not even 24 hours since the disaster. So we are still in the process of gathering information.”

New Zealand Cricket chief executive Martin Snedden said he was liaising closely with the Sri Lankan team. “We’re just trying to work through a process at the moment. We don’t know (if the tour will continue),” Snedden said.