Hadlee car row seen as matter for players

Press, 10 February 1986, Page 1

Hadlee car row seen as matter for players

The Richard Hadlee Alfa 90 affair should remain a matter for the New Zealand players to sort out, says the New Zealand Cricket Council’s secretary, Mr Graham Dowling.

The New Zealand cricket team is divided on the issue of whether Hadlee should keep the car he won as the International Cricketer of the year while in Australia this summer, or give it up and share the proceeds among the full team.

It is the third time that Hadlee, New Zealand’s outstanding player in both

the Australian test series and the one-day competition against India and Australia, has won a car. On the other occasions, he has given the car up. The team is believed to have voted seven to five, with two abstentions, in favour of sharing the profits from the car. The New Zealand team will assemble later this month in Wellington for the first test of a threematch series against Australia and Mr Dowling expressed the personal view that he hoped the matter would not affect morale within the team.

Common sense, he hoped, would prevail. Mr Dowling could not comment on whether the council would step into the affair. He felt the dispute had received too much publicity already. The next full meeting of the council’s board of control will be in Christchurch on February 27. In a telephone poll at the Christchurch radio station 3ZB on Saturday, 237 callers said they believed Hadlee should retain the car and 12 were against this, with one suggesting a compromise, said a station broadcast