New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming told a press conference after the team’s arrival in Auckland today that he will be haunted forever by some of the sights he saw in the aftermath of Wednesday’s bomb blast that ended the tour of Pakistan
Lynn McConnell10-May-2002
Fleming tries to hold back tears at a press conference at Auckland Airport
Photograph © PhotosportNew Zealand captain Stephen Fleming told a press conference after the team’s arrival in Auckland today that he will be haunted forever by some of the sights he saw in the aftermath of Wednesday’s bomb blast that ended the tour of Pakistan.”I saw too much, I saw things people shouldn’t have to see,” he said.One horrifying moment was when he was running to safety in the car park of the team’s hotel in company with the team’s security advisor and saw a man walking from the area of the blast with a limb missing and making noises he said were quite distressing.Fleming said people who commented that the team should have stayed longer before coming home had obviously not seen the carnage or they wouldn’t be commenting like that.”It puts a lot of things in perspective,” he said.Fleming added that he expected the trauma of what the team had been through to hit players individually over the next few days as they broke away from the team unit and met loved ones on their own.”Emotionally that will be more taxing,” he said.Fleming said there was an absolute feeling of relief when the team left Karachi and the mood of the side had lifted considerably.He said he was at breakfast when the bomb blast occurred and was contemplating leaving on the early bus for the ground that morning.That bus would have passed within 15 metres of the bombed bus, five minutes after the blast.When the explosion occurred the blast had reverberated through his body several times, the ceiling was flaking in the restaurant. The team security advisor Reg Dickason sent Fleming and other hotel patrons sprinting for the safety of the car park and Fleming said Dickason was required to move some people along very quickly.His scariest moment was when he found eight of the team in the car park but didn’t know where the other team members were.Fleming said there was no two ways about the decision to return home, it had been the correct decision for Martin Snedden, New Zealand Cricket’s chief executive and the Pakistan Cricket Board to make.The security surrounding the team had seen every precaution taken. Fleming said he would take a long time to consider returning to Pakistan but his initial reaction was that he didn’t want to be close to something like that again.Coach Denis Aberhart said the New Zealand players were lucky, they could come home to safety.The Pakistan players had to live among this sort of problem.”For the good of cricket, and the good of the world, I hope it settles down. Pakistan is a very interesting place to tour,” he said.Aberhart said that while the players never felt completely at ease in Pakistan they felt they were looked after.In the aftermath of the bomb blast, the Pakistan players had been shocked as well and they said that it may have been the last chance to show that Pakistan was a good place to tour. They were concerned about what future they had in cricket now.Counselling would be available to players and Snedden said there would be a lot of talking and discussion with players before the tour to the West Indies was considered. Snedden dismissed as speculation any hint that the West Indies tour might be in danger of not being undertaken.The important thing for the players at the moment was to let them get home to their families and to resume normal lives.Published comments in New Zealand today from Pakistan that the New Zealanders should have waited longer before leaving were discounted by Snedden.”There’s no two ways about this. As soon as we found out, and as soon as I talked to Jeff Crowe, who I have known for 35 years and who has been calm in situations before, I heard how shocked he was and that view was doubly confirmed today when seeing the team today,” he said.
