Tour of India 2003-04                     Captain : Stephen Fleming

46th official Test tour.

Eighth Test-playing tour of India by New Zealand

(September - December 2003)

Known as the " TelstraClear Black Caps Test team", the New Zealanders achieved two hard-fought draws in the Test series against India.  However, they were disappoinitng in the one-day triangular series when Australia and India went through to the final. 

At the end of the tour a weakened team under the leadership of Chris Cairns then lost an ODI series in Pakistan.  The series, arranged to compensate Pakistan for New Zealand’s abandoned tour in May the previous year following a bomb blast outside the team’s Karachi hotel, was delayed a week and the players returned briefly to New Zealand. Pakistan completed a 5-0 whitewash against a team diminished by the withdrawal of several players who had been in the 2002 bomb blast and refused to return to Pakistan.

All New Zealand tours

Previous tour

Sri Lanka 2002-03

Next tour

England 2004

Next tour of India

2010-11

Members of the Test tour party(14)

Opening batsmen  Mark Richardson, Lou Vincent

Middle-order batsmen  Nathan Astle,  Stephen Fleming,  Craig McMillan,  Scott Styris, Richard Jones

Wicket-keepers  Robbie Hart

Spin bowlers  Daniel Vettori, Paul Wiseman

Fast bowlers  Jacob Oram, Ian Butler, Darryl Tuffey, Michael Mason. 

Representation of teams  

A - Auckland (2)

C - Canterbury (3)

CD - Central Districts (2)

ND - Northern Districts (5)

O - Otago (1)

W - Wellington (1)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(8 October 2003) :  27 yrs  11 months.

ODI :  part of the squad for the ODI series in India [In] and in Pakistan[P ]

⋄ awarded central contract

    (June 2003 - May 2004)

Test Appearances made before the tour

Fleming 75,  Astle 57,  Vettori 46,  McMillan 44,  Richardson 24,  Wiseman 16,  Tuffey 14,  Vincent 11,  Hart 7,  Styris 5,  Butler 4,  Oram 4,  Jones 0,  Mason 0.

Team Officials

New Zealand Cricket sent Wellington coach Vaughn Johnson to be in Pakistan for that leg of the tour, and Martin Snedden, the chief executive of NZC, wanted to see the tour at first hand.

Selectors

Sir Richard Hadlee (selection panel manager),  Ashley Ross (coach),  Ross Dykes and  Brian McKechnie.

Selection

Unavailable  : Shane Bond was recovering from a back injury.   Chris Cairns was unavailable for the Test section of the tour because his partner was due to have a baby.  

Tour Party Announced  : 19 August 2003.

 A 14-man Test squad was announced with five changes to be made for the 14-man squad for the ODI series in India.

Not selected:  Andre Adams,  Matthew Horne,  Matthew Sinclair.

Unavailable for Pakistan ODI series: Shane Bond, Kyle Mills (viral infection), Stephen Feming (abdominal strain), Nathan Astle (knee injury), Matthew Horne, Andre Adams, Craig McMillan, Scott Styris, Ian Butler and Lou Vincent.

One-day squad for Pakistan announced: 21 November 2003.

Chris Cairns (captain), Tama Canning, Craig Cumming, Chris Harris, Paul Hitchcock, Richard Jones, Hamish Marshall, Michael Mason, Brendon McCullum, Jacob Oram, Mathew Sinclair, Daryl Tuffey, Daniel Vettori, Matthew Walker, Kerry Walmsley.

Time between selection and departure from New Zealand

  33 days

(19 August to 21 September)

Travel    

?  Q Chennai

For two weeks before the tour Michael Mason attended Denis Lillee's Chennai-based bowling clinic.

The Test squad took part in an eight-day training camp in Brisbane from September 10 but returned to New Zealand before leaving for India on 21 September.

The 14-member Test party arrived in Chennai on 22 September. Stand-in coach Ashley Ross and his video analyst Zach Hitchcock had flown in ahead of the rest of the squad, specifically to watch the five-day Irani Cup match which featured all of India’s top players.

Time spent in India

   57 days

(22 September - 18 November)

On-tour selection panel

-

Reinforcements

 -

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

§ one-day international

Time spent in India before First Test:   16 days

(22 September - 8 October)

Test appearances on tour

2  -    Astle,  Fleming,  Hart,  McMillan,  Richardson,  Styris,  Tuffey,  Vettori,  Vincent,  Wiseman.

1  -    Butler,  Oram

0  -    Jones,  Mason.

Highlights

•    Astle’s century (103) and Vettori’s crucial 60 at Ahmedabad helped NZ to avoid the follow-on

•    Vettori became the fourth New Zealander to reach 1000 runs/100 wickets in Tests.

•    Wiseman took 4-64 as India batted again.

•    At Mohali New Zealand passed 600 runs in a Test innings for only the second time against India.

•    There were four centuries - Mark Richardson (145), Lou Vincent (106), Scott Styris (119) and Craig McMillan (100) - in the innings.

Tour Summary

Return to New Zealand   

Mumbai  Q ?

Rawalpindi  Q ?

The tour management sent Nathan Astle home for further treatment on his recovering knee.

At the end of the TVS tri-series in India, the team delayed its decision on whether to move on to Pakistan after receiving an email threatening the team if they played during Ramadan.

Craig McMillan, Scott Styris, Ian Butler, Lou Vincent and video analyser Zach Hitchcock, who were all in Karachi in May 2002 when a suicide bomb exploded outside their hotel, were not prepared to return to Pakistan. Stephen Fleming also ruled himself out of the tour because of a stomach muscle injury.

These team members came home from Mumbai on Tuesday 18 November.

The team was originally due to arrive in Karachi on November 20, but the matches were re-scheduled so they would now arrive in Lahore on November 27. Therefore the team returned home for a week in New Zealand while the itinerary was checked by Reg Dickason, tour security mamanger.  They left New Zealand again for Pakistan on 26 November and arrived in Lahore after a 36-hour flight on Friday morning 28 November.

The team flew home from Rawalpindi via a four-hour transit in Karachi, on 7 December 2003.

Time away from New Zealand    71 days  

(21 September to 8 December,

less 19-26 November).

Finances

New Zealand Cricket incurred unbudgeted costs associated with the rescheduling of the Black Caps visit to play one-day internationals in Pakistan at the end of the Indian tour.

Postscript

The next tour of India did not take place until 2010-11.