New Zealand Resumes 50-Year Rivalry

Mon, Jun 3, '02

New Zealand have arrived in the Caribbean for a tour which marks 50 years of rivalry with the West Indies.

They will play two Tests and five one-day internationals during the month-long and having been mostly on the receving end over the past half a century, they are hopeful of some good results.

Following a one-day whitewash and a comprehensive innings defeat in the Test during the recent truncated trip to Pakistan, they have been reinforced by the return from injuries of batsman Nathan Astle and paceman Shane Bond.

But history is against them with New Zealand having won only six of the 30 Tests played between the two sides and having failed to win a single Test on three previous trips to the Caribbean.

Their only series successes both came on home soil - in 1980 and 2000.

Relations between the teams have not always been cordial, with particularly bad memories of the 1980 series in New Zealand.

Clive Lloyd's side landed in New Zealand after comprehensively defeating Australia 2-0 but, surprisingly, they lost the first Test at Dunedin by one wicket.

The match is remembered for the misbehaviour of paceman Michael Holding, who responded to having a confident lbw appeal turned down by kicking down the stumps.

The second Test at Christchurch witnessed two more unsavoury incidents involving Colin Croft.

Angry at being no-balled, he flicked off the bails as he walked back for the next delivery and shortly afterwards bumped into umpire Fred Goodall while striding in to bowl.

West Indies were unhappy with the quality of umpiring and, in an unprecedented move in the history of cricket, they refused to go into the field on the third day, demanding the removal of umpire Goodall.

Lengthy negotiations between the cricket officials of the two countries followed to convince the West Indies to save the match and the tour.

Holding and Croft had to submit written apologies to the West Indies Cricket Board after the tour was concluded.

The 2000 series was thankfully free of such problems.

In the first Test at Hemilton, the all-round performance of Chris Cairns was the catalyst whereas in Wellington, Matthew Sinclair's double ton played the key role in an innings victory.

West Indies have been showing imrpoved form of late and will go into the series on the back of a 2-1 win over an Indian team boasting a powerful batting line-up.

They will also be encouraged by the fact that the two star performers of that 2000 series - Cairns and Sinclair - are not in the Stephen Fleming's squad.

SOURCE: BBC Sports Online.