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 | | Friday, 10 May, 2002, 05:49 GMT 06:49 UK Fleming haunted by bomb blast  Fleming shows the strain as he answers questions New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming says he will be "haunted for the rest of his life" by the bomb blast outside his team's Karachi hotel. The Black Caps skipper fought back tears on his arrival back in Auckland following the abandonment of their Pakistan tour. A suicide bomb attack outside the New Zealand team's Karachi HQ on Wednesday killed 14 people. Half of the squad were missing when the players assembled moments after the explosion.
"I saw things people shouldn't see," an emotional Fleming told reporters on the squad's arrival back in New Zealand. "It will haunt me for the rest of my life. I saw one guy with a limb missing walking around. It was pretty harrowing and the noise he was making was horrific. "Sitting in the car park outside you had the feeling that half the team was missing... and that was pretty tough to take." An emotional Fleming broke down as he recalled the carnage. He had been with a group of seven players having breakfast at the time. "The explosion is something you can't describe," he added. "It reverberated through your whole body." 'Right decision'
All the New Zealand players were safe but physio Dayle Shackel, who was already on the team bus, received a cut to his elbow as a window on the vehicle shattered. New Zealand Cricket (NZC) are to make counsellors available to the squad. Fleming said the players were safe in the team environment after the experience, but that the full horror of the events could come out when they went their separate ways. He backed the decision to abort the tour. "It was definitely the right decision," he added. "The team thanks Martin Snedden (the NZC chief executive) and the Pakistan Cricket Board for making the arrangements so quickly." New Zealand are due to leave for a tour of the West Indies in three weeks, but Fleming said it was too early to say if any of the players would pull out of that trip. "After we've been through what we have been through, there hasn't been a lot of time to consider the West Indies," he said. | | See also:  Internet links: The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Other top Cricket stories: Links to more Cricket stories are at the foot of the page. | |||
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