New Zealanders back series cancellation

John Bracewell, the New Zealand coach, has backed Sri Lanka's decision to return home after the series was cancelled owing to the tsunami disaster that ravaged most parts of South Asia, including large parts of Sri Lanka. Bracewell went straight to the airport to wish the Sri Lankans and expressed his sympathy for them.

"To put things in perspective it's not a difficult time for the Black Caps at all, but a very difficult time for the Sri Lankans," Bracewell told Radio Sport. "We've just been down there to offer what small comfort we can in wishing them all the best for where they're going and what they're going into."

Bracewell revealed that the New Zealand side were thinking of ways to provide assistance, and hinted at the possibility of a charity match sometime in the future. He said that Chris Cairns had volunteered to work out the possibilities. "Chris is dealing with that as part of our senior-players group," Bracewell said. "He'd taken it on as he had done with the floods [in New Zealand last February] in terms of organising the players. That's something we may deal with when we know where we stand."

Mathew Sinclair, the top-order batsman, was in favour of the decision and felt that the Sri Lankans would have found it "difficult to concentrate on cricket". He added: "I think it is the only thing for them to do in the situation. They obviously have friends and relatives at home badly affected and want to go back and help. It would have taken the edge away from them and it would have been difficult for us to focus fully as well. Not only Sri Lankans are affected, there's a lot of New Zealanders unaccounted for as well."

New Zealand's next international assignment is the tour by Australia, starting on February 17 and most of the cricketers would return to domestic cricket in the next few days.