Cricket Witness No 5 - Whites on Green

126 With changes and congestion in the international schedule, full season tours by overseas teams are now a thing of the past, and although Swansea staged games against the A teams from India and Sri Lanka in 2003 and again in 2004, the last three-day game against a full international side at Swansea took place in mid-June 1994 with the visit of the New Zealanders to St. Helen’s. The Kiwis were on English and Welsh soil from early May until late June during which time they had a three-Test series against England, plus a pair of one-day internationals. The game with Glamorgan began on 8 th June, just a couple of days after they had suffered an innings defeat in the opening Test at Trent Bridge, where Graham Gooch had struck a masterly double-century and Phil de Freitas had taken the bowling honours. With the second Test the following week at Lord’s, the New Zealanders had games at Swansea and against Gloucestershire at Bristol in which to find form. They duly recorded an eight-wicket victory over Glamorgan in a contest where Hugh Morris had invited the tourists to chase a target of 305 from 70 overs on the final day. For some of the romantics in the crowd, the declaration evoked memories of the Australian match in 1968 but 10 June 1994 was not to be another great date in Welsh sporting history as a 71-ball century by Ken Rutherford saw the tourists canter home with four overs to spare. As Phil Blanche wrote in the Western Mail : “The New Zealand captain upstaged world record holder Brian Lara The view from the boundary at The Gnoll in 1985 as Neath plays host to Glamorgan’s game against the Australians. International cricket comes to Swansea