Tour of  Pakistan 1990-91                 Captain : Martin Crowe

27th official Test tour.

Sixth Test-playing  tour of Pakistan by New Zealand

(October -

          November 1990)

New Zealand began a new era with one of its least experienced touring sides. Six senior players made themselves unavailable for the tour of Pakistan, while Millmow and Thomson from the England tour were discarded. Also Bob Cunis, for three years the team’s assistant manager and cricket coach, was unavailable because his daughter was getting married.

Imran Khan declined to play at such a hot time of year and against such a weakened side, but with Waqar Younis, Pakistan unearthed a new opening bowler of extreme pace to replace him. Deprived of the star players and faced by such a fast bowling attack, Martin Crowe frequently said he hoped the could at least get through one match against Pakistan without defeat, but this was not to be.  New Zealand lost all three Tests and three one-day internationals.

Bowlers on both sides interfered with the condition of the ball. The New Zealanders alleged that the Pakistanis started the practice but Chris Pringle then deliberately and openly did so and showed the amount of swing he could obtain by taking 7 for 52 in the final Test at Faisalabad.

The BCCP switched the third Test from Karachi to Faisalabad owing to the threat of election violence.

The team sponsors were DB Draught, who nicknamed the team as the "Young Guns"

All New Zealand tours

Previous tour

England 1990 

Next tour

Zimbabwe 1992-93 

Members of the Test tour party  (15)

Opening batsman:  Trevor Franklin, David White

Middle-order batsmen  Martin Crowe, Dipak Patel, Mark Greatbatch, Philip Horne, Ken Rutherford

Wicket-keeper: Ian Smith, Adam Parore

Spin bowlers: Grant Bradburn, Mark Priest

Fast bowlers: Danny Morrison, Shane Roberts, Chris Pringle, Willie Watson

 

Provincial representation

A - Auckland (8)

C - Canterbury (2)

CD - Central Districts (1)

ND - Northern Districts (2)

O - Otago (1)

W - Wellington (1)

Horne did not appear for Auckland in 1989-90 as he was a member of the Commonwealth Games badminton team

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(10 Octoberr 1990) :

  26 yrs  10 months

ODI played in Wills one-day series

Test Appearances made before the tour

Smith 55, Crowe 51,  Rutherford 22,  Morrison 16,  Franklin 15,  Greatbatch 14,  Patel 8,  Watson 3,  Horne 3, Priest 1,  Parore 1,  Bradburn 0,  Pringle 0,  Roberts 0,  White 0.

Team Officials

Haji Saleh was the assistant station manager of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) office at Lahore. Chris Pringle has written that he was responsible for baggage during the tour.

Selectors

Don Neely (Chairman),  Warren Lees (coach),   Bruce Taylor.

Selection

Martin Crowe was appointed as the new captain.

Unavailable:  Sir Richard Hadlee and Martin Snedden (both retired); John Wright (the former captain), Jeff Crowe, John Bracewell, Andrew Jones.

Bob Cunis, the coach, was not available either and was replaced by Warren Lees.

Tour Party Announced :  11 August 1990.

Not selected :  Shane Thomson.

Time between selection and departure from New Zealand

  47 days

(11 August to 27 September)

Travel

Q

A pre-tour training camp was held at Devonport Naval Base and Eden Park, Auckland, starting on 13 September 1990.

The team flew from Auckland Airport and arrived at Karachi International Airport at 2 am on 28 September 1990 after an 18-hour journey.

Time spent in Pakistan

   41 days

(28 September - 8 November)

On-tour selection panel

Martin Crowe,  Ian Smith,  Warren Lees.

Reinforcements

None

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

§ one-day international

Time spent in Pakistan before First Test: 

12 days

(28 September - 10 October)

Test appearances on tour

3  -  Bradburn,  Crowe,  Franklin,  Greatbatch,  Morrison,  Patel,  Pringle,  Rutherford,  Smith,  Watson

2  -  White

1 -   Horne

0 -   Parore,  Priest,  Roberts.

Parore played in only one match all tour and did not bat

Highlights

•  Rutherford (79) and Crowe (68*) played defiant innings at Karachi as the rest of the batting collapsed.

•  Martin Crowe scored 108* batting for more than nine hours to hold up Pakistan at Lahore

•  At Faisalabad  Danny Morrison batted 242 minutes for 25 runs.

•  Chris Pringle recorded the third best NZ bowling figures (7-52) at Faisalabad; with 4-100 in the 2nd innings, he became only the second New Zealander to take ten wickets in a Test match.

Tour Summary

Return to New Zealand

Q

Departure was from Karachi on the morning of 8 November 1990, as the West Indians flew in for their Test series.  The Kiwis arrived home on 9 November, landing at Auckland Airport.

Time away from New Zealand    43 days  

(27 September to 9 November)

Finances

The Pakistan Board guaranteed New Zealand the sum of US $200 000 for the tour.