Cricket: 'No stuff up' after no show at airport

Chris Lander

Flight EK406 from Colombo landed a few minutes earlier than the scheduled 1.45pm arrival time yesterday at Auckland international airport but, almost two hours later, no sign of Sri Lanka cricketer Mahela Jayawardene.

What could have possibly gone wrong, as a 4.15pm domestic flight to Nelson was running perilously close for Jayawardene?

Maybe the masterful batsman got into a spot of bother with some mud still caught between the spikes of his cricket shoes and was going through the spin-dry process of the Customs and Immigration Department.

A shade before 4pm NZ Cricket media man Richard Boock, patiently and dutifully waiting to hook up scribes for phone interviews, discovered the 38-year-old never boarded flight EK406 for his much-anticipated debut for the Central Districts Stags T20 game against Wellington Firebirds today at Saxton Oval.

So went wrong?

"He's had some complications with his flight," explained interim CD chief executive Chris Lander.

While Lander "hadn't got to the bottom of it", suffice it to say in adopting a cricket slogan, "Anything Can Happen" during flights.

"There's no stuff-up. There's the awful terrorism and God knows what flight delays they have out there."

Jayawardene is expected to arrive at 1.45pm in Auckland today and Lander will whisk him away from Nelson airport to the game almost an hour after it starts at 4pm.

The Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology has helped secure the right-hander's services so, consequently, he will do some promotional work for the educational facility that has ties with a Sri Lankan tertiary institution.

Lander didn't anticipate the crowd to be consequently smaller because if fans love cricket then they would show up regardless.

"It's exactly the same if he had turned up with a sprained ankle in the morning of the game."

On the flip side, Lander saw the benefit in Jayawardene's debut against Canterbury Kings in New Plymouth on Saturday in a televised match.