Cricket: Shocking day for tourists

The longest week of the Sri Lankan players' lives began just 10 minutes after New Zealand had made short work of them in the Boxing Day one-dayer.

It was then, vice captain Mahela Jayawardene said, that manager Brendon Kuruppu revealed their homeland had been devastated by a tsunami.

Too often sportspeople or teams are described as being shell-shocked after a defeat; on this occasion it was true.

On Friday Jayawardene and the team flew home, nervous about what they were going to find.

What made it worse for the team was that when they contacted friends and relatives in Colombo, most of them were in the dark as well.

"I don't think most people in Sri Lanka knew what a tsunami was," Jayawardene said.

The team will spend a day or two with families, then take part in activities and relief work organised by the Sri Lankan cricket board.

"We need to go and talk to the people," he said, noting that while the team had got off lightly in terms of casualties to immediate family, thousands of cricket fans had perished.

"It has been really tough," Jayawardene continued. "We have been really worried because some of the guys lost relatives and Sanath [Jayasuriya] and Upal's [Chandanna] mothers were both injured. Fortunately they are OK."

Jayawardene said veteran Jayasuriya, who lives in Sri Lanka's south, had lost "most of his house and his belongings too".

"We were really anxious because for three or four days we ... didn't know exactly what was happening.

"At the end of the day the right decision was made."

Jayawardene said he wasn't sure when a rescheduled tour could be fitted into their schedule, as Sri Lanka's programme was already "choc-a-bloc".

Captain Marvan Atapattu reiterated that he feared the damage back home would be much worse than what they had seen during sleepless nights watching television.

He admitted cricket had been the last thing on their minds.

"In a position like this when you are playing for a country and playing under one flag, and when that country is affected like this it is too hard to concentrate, to have the same frame of mind about cricket. It's disturbing and we wouldn't have been at 100 per cent so we said how we felt to the cricket board."

Jayawardene said they had been stunned by the support received from both New Zealanders and the Sri Lankan community in New Zealand.

"They have been raising a lot of funds to send back home. It's brilliant how people have reacted to this."

Even in the darkest hour, Jayawardene found time to spare a thought for his hosts over the past two weeks.

"Unfortunately I've heard there are lots of New Zealanders affected by this in Thailand as well. Our thoughts are with the families. That's all we can do at the moment. We have a duty to go back home though."

- HERALD ON SUNDAY