Rumours of Martin Snedden's death create panic

New Zealand went into a temporary state of shock on Saturday night as rumours spread that Martin Snedden, the chief executive of New Zealand cricket, had died in an accident. The rumours were finally dispelled when NZC's media-liason manager, Simon Wilson, broke into his hotel room shortly after midnight, and found Snedden safe and sound.

The rumour began when a 46-year-old man in Melville, a suburb of Hamilton, was struck by a stolen car while walking his dog. Shortly after the incident, a taxi driver reportedly told some mediamen about the accident, but mentioned that it involved some cricketers, as well as Snedden.

Panic set in as mediamen and NZC officials tried to call Snedden on his mobile phone, and he did not answer. Wilson sprinted 500 metres to the team hotel and rushed into Snedden's room with the master key to find that all was well.

"We were fast asleep and the phone went," said Snedden, "Being in a foreign room, we couldn't find the phone in time and missed the call. We were a bit disoriented and fell back to asleep. Five minutes later Simon came bursting into the room and I was thinking - 'What the hell are you doing?'"

Snedden said that he wished the entire thing had been a hoax, rather than a misunderstanding. "It's been a very sobering experience, and my thoughts are with the bereaved man's family and friends," he said. "The tragedy is that there really was a fatal accident."

He added, "I think NZC received a couple of applications for chief executive overnight."