Cricket: Black Caps fly home - and not a minute too soon

The screeching of the team bus tyres were almost audible soon after New Zealand cricket captain Stephen Fleming held the Videocon Cup aloft yesterday.

Amid cries of "to the airport, driver", New Zealand's controversial tour came to an end five weeks to the day since they touched down in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare.

For the New Zealand players, those 35 days must have seemed like a lifetime.

Fleming likened the 14-day stretch in sleepy Bulawayo to the film, Groundhog Day, while test bowler James Franklin admitted "we've watched a lot of telly".

Aside from their deserved celebration of another one-day tournament final victory over India, the end of the tour wouldn't have come quick enough.

Result-wise it was a roaring success -- a predictable 2-0 test series hiding of the weak home team inside five days and their second victory over India in a final on African soil, after their breakthrough Champions Trophy victory in Nairobi in 2000.

If the on-field action seemed largely pointless, played in near-empty grounds, there was the sight of a fit and firing Shane Bond ripping through the Indian batting lineup, and the wizadry of spinner Daniel Vettori that offered something for the cricket purist.

But it wasn't their on-field performance the players were under the microscope for.

Tour buildup was dominated by intense political pressure on the Black Caps not to tour, due to President Robert Mugabe's human rights abuses.

It all missed the point that New Zealand Cricket (NZC) had several years ago agreed to the International Cricket Council's future tours programme -- a binding contract which carried financial penalties of tens of millions of dollars, international cricket isolation and waving goodbye to New Zealand's chances of hosting a World Cup.

NZC offered players the chance to individually boycott the tour without reprisal, but none opted to.

They all chose to do their jobs, and at $6000 per test and $2500 per one-day international it was $24,500 in wages plus their tour allowances.

There were no political statements, no black arm bands, and conversely, no pressure to shake hands with Mugabe or his representatives.

Predictably, they were used as political pawns for the Zimbabwe government, with state-run newspapers lauding the Black Caps' decision to tour in the face of advice from Prime Minister Helen Clark.

But the players and coach John Bracewell stuck to the strict party line, commenting only on cricket issues.

It remains to be seen whether they deviate from that and express any regrets about touring when they arrive in Christchurch tomorrow (Friday).

Aside from a few rounds of golf, a visit to the spectacular Victoria Falls and to Zimbabwe player Heath Streak's family game park, it went basically like this... hotel, team bus, cricket ground, training, hotel...

As on tours of Pakistan or India, the hotel pool and the team's plentiful supply of DVDs got the heaviest workout, as the walls of the hotel would barely have been breached.

Bond's return from two years away with back problems, bowling at pace with vicious inswing, didn't make the tour seem quite so mundane.

He took 11 wickets at 8.63 in the one-day series including a stunning New Zealand record six for 19 against India, and in the tests 13 wickets at 9.23 as the Zimbabwe batsmen were possums in his headlights.

Vettori wasn't far behind and bowled as well as ever, taking 11 wickets at 13.72 in the tests and taking a vital two for 35 in the final to slam the brakes on India's innings.

Lou Vincent's New Zealand record 172 against Zimbabwe and Nathan Astle's composed 15th one-day century in their six-wicket win in the final were other highlights.

For the Black Caps it was mission accomplished, but it seemed for everyone it was a mission they would rather not have embarked on.

- NZPA