Sports cancelled as traumatised New Zealand mourns shooting victims

WELLINGTON REUTERS March 16: A raft of top class sporting events were cancelled in New Zealand on Saturday as a traumatised nation started burying the dead from the worst peacetime mass killing in its history.

A lone gunman killed 49 people and wounded more than 20 at two Christchurch mosques on Friday in a shooting which Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern condemned as “a terrorist attack”. While one National Rugby League match went ahead in Auckland on Saturday, a horse racing meeting, a top class rugby union match, a cricket test, and string of netball games were all scratched from the schedules in the wake of the attack.

“This isn't about cricket,” New Zealand Cricket chief executive David White said when discussing the cancellations in his sport.

“It's about something much bigger and much more important than that. It's about life, it's about respect. It's about family and community.

“Cricket and sport takes a back-seat to personal welfare.” The third cricket test between New Zealand and Bangladesh, whose team were on a bus approaching one of the mosques with the attack underway, was cancelled on Friday.

The test was due to start at Hagley Oval in Christchurch on Saturday but the Bangladesh team left New Zealand less than 24 hours after the shooting and about an hour after the initial scheduled start time.

The Super Rugby clash in Dunedin between the Otago Highlanders and Canterbury Crusaders, who are based in Christchurch, was called off on Saturday out of respect for the victims and their families.