Cricket: Knee injury forces Oram home

New Zealand cricketer Jacob Oram is on his way home from Sri Lanka to seek treatment on a persistent knee injury.

The Central Districts allrounder is due to see a specialist in Auckland tomorrow, leaving his provincial coach Alan Hunt sweating over his fitness ahead of the Champions League Twenty20 tournament in South Africa next month.

Oram hurt his knee during training at Dambulla yesterday as the New Zealand team prepared for their virtual tri-series one-day semifinal against India starting tonight.

Central Districts coach Alan Hunt revealed that Oram had been carrying the injury for some time although he was fine when taking figures none for 26 off nine overs in the ultimately weather-aborted one-dayer against Sri Lanka at Dambulla last weekend.

Oram is in transit from the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo, and Hunt is hanging out for an update on his fitness ahead of Central Districts' departure on September 2 for the Champions League.

"This knee has been troublesome for some time. He's been having niggles on and off with it for a reasonable period of time," Hunt said.

"It has clearly flared up again in the last couple of days in Sri Lanka and they've tried to treat it over there without any success.

"No doubt they've done everything they can to improve the situation but found they better get him back here for a medical opinion and some rehab, thinking long-term towards the World Cup (in February-March)."

Hunt said it was for others to determine whether there was a short-term solution to the injury or whether surgery was required.

"But I guess we have our concerns in terms of his participating in the Champions League tournament."

Oram, 32, has been bedevilled by injury during an international career dating back to 2002 and he retired from test cricket last October in a bid to extend his career in the limited overs formats.

- NZPA