Tour of Sri Lanka 1983-84                  Captain : Geoff Howarth

Seventeenth official Test tour.

First Test-playing  tour of Sri Lanka by New Zealand

 (February - April 1984)

New Zealand had just beaten England 1-0 in the 1983-84 Test series in New Zealand, and now gained its first series victory away from home since 1969-70. It was also the first time that New Zealand had won two consecutive Test series.

New Zealand were better than Sri Lanka and were worthy winners. The best Sri Lanka could do was hold out doggedly for a draw in the second Test.

The limited-overs international series was also won although Sri Lanka won back a victory in the second one-day match. By that stage the tourists found that they were completely exhausted playing in the heat and humidity.

All New Zealand tours

Previous tour

England 1983

Next tour

Pakistan 1984-85

Next tour of Sri Lanka 

1986-87

Members of the Test tour party (14)

Opening batsmen  John Wright, Bruce Edgar, Geoff Howarth

Middle-order batsmen   Jeremy Coney,  Jeff Crowe,  Martin Crowe, John F Reid

Wicket-keeper: Ian Smith

All-rounder:  Richard Hadlee

Spin bowlers:  John Bracewell, Stephen Boock.

Fast bowlers:  Ewan Chatfield, Lance Cairns, Derek Stirling.

Provincial representation

A - Auckland (3)

C - Canterbury (1)

CD - Central Districts (3)

ND - Northern Districts (3)

O - Otago (1)

W - Wellington (3)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(9 March 1984) :  28 yrs  7 months.

Test Appearances made before the tour

Hadlee 47,  Howarth 37,  Cairns 35,  Wright 28,  Coney 27,  Edgar 27,  Boock 14,  Chatfield 13,  Smith 12,  M Crowe 10,  Bracewell 8,  J Crowe 7,  Reid 4,  Stirling 0.

Team Officials

Basil McBurney, born 1925, had played for minor association Waikato.  He was a Northern Districts administrator.

Merv Wallace said the national team should not be going on tour without a technically sound adviser to act as coach and that Martin Horton would have been ideal; but he was going back to England to be in charge of cricket at Eton College.

Selectors

Frank Cameron (convenor),  Don Neely,  John Guy.

Selection

Unavailable  : None

Tour Party Announced  :  14 February 1984.

Not selected:  Evan Gray,  Martin Snedden.

Time between selection and departure from New Zealand

  13 days

(14 February to 27 February)

Travel   

Auckland  Q Colombo

The team departed from Auckland Airport on the morning of Monday 27 February. On the same day the England team flew out of Auckland for their tour of Pakistan.

The New Zealanders travelled for nearly twenty hours before reaching Colombo.  After arrival formalities had been completed, they headed straight for their hotel beds.  Next day they were taken by coach to Galle on a pot-holed road nearly four hours away where the first tour match was then delayed a day by rain.

Time spent in Sri Lanka

   x days

(28 February - depart Host)

On-tour selection panel

The on-tour selectors were  Geoff Howarth (captain),  John Wright (vice-captain) and Jeremy Coney.

Reinforcements

None

Fixtures/Results

§  ODI

† not first-class

Time spent in Sri Lanka before First Test: 

10 days

(28 February - 9 March)

Test appearances on tour

3  -   Boock,  Coney,  J  Crowe,  M D Crowe,  Hadlee,  Howarth,  Reid,  Smith,  Wright.

2  -   Bracewell,  Cairns,  Chatfield

0  -   Edgar,  Stirling.

Highlights

•  John Reid scored 180 in 685 minutes in the final Test, the only century made on the tour

•  Jeremy Coney came closest to another batsman scoring a century, with 92 in the same innings at Colombo.  He and Reid shared a partnership of 133 for the sixth wicket.

•  Geoff Howarth scored 60 in each innings of the first Test.

•  Richard Hadlee took 23 wickets in the Test matches, and 31 on the tour.

Tour Summary

Return to New Zealand

Colombo     Q   Auckland

The tour party was greeted at Auckland Airport on its return on 4 April.

On the plane the players had read a two-page letter from Graham Dowling of the New Zealand Cricket Council, reminding them that their contracts required them to remain silent about Lance Cairns’s newspaper criticism of skipper Geoff Howarth and about the England players smoking pot in New Zealand.

Time away from New Zealand    37 days  

(27 February to 4 April)