Cricket: Test hero Cairns in tour doubt

CHRISTCHURCH - Injured New Zealand cricketers Chris Cairns and Geoff Allott will visit medical specialists today to determine their availability for the tour of India.

Cairns is to have an assessment on the injury to his right knee, which flared in the latter stages of the England tour.

"It's an over-use injury and an ongoing thing and we'll just have to see where it's at," Cairns said on arrival in Christchurch from England yesterday.

The problem is the same as that which forced him to miss trips to the Commonwealth Games and mini World Cup a year ago.

When he had a similar injury to the left knee previously, surgery and a nine-month layoff was required. Ironically, the injury comes with Cairns bowling at his sharpest and off his longer run for the first time in recent seasons.

Cairns said that with Simon Doull being invalided out of the tour and Allott struggling with a back problem, it placed pressure on him to perform with the new ball.

Fellow Canterbury pace bowler Allott also wants to make the tour to India, but the interpretation of several x-rays he had taken in London may decide his availability. Allott said there was some slight confusion in three different x-rays.

He wanted the medical team in Christchurch, who had overseen his rehabilitation from a stress fracture last season, to view the pictures.

Allott experienced lower back pain while bowling in the tour's late stages and it forced him out of contention for the final matches.

* Cairns set a New Zealand record for six-hitting during his memorable 80-run innings in the final cricket test against England.

Cairns' four sixes at The Oval took his overall test tally to 36, passing the previous marks of fellow all-rounders, John R Reid and Richard Hadlee, who each hit 33 sixes during their test careers. The fourth-highest six-hitting Black Cap is Cairns' father, Lance, with 28.

However, Chris has a long way to go before challenging the world mark of 84, which belongs to West Indies master blaster Viv Richards. - NZPA