1) It's the third season in a row that Sri Lanka have toured here
2) It's still pretty cold, Summer has yet to take off.
3) Test Cricket in NZ doesn't generally attract big crowds.
4) At this time of year your average NZ punter is more worried about Christmas related activities.
5) The ODI's will see good crowds.

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Having seen the incident on tv i think New Zealand were right to run out Murali.You can't make a schoolboy error by walking out of your crease before the ball has even reached the keeper.I bet Sangakkarra would have done the same if the roles were reversed.

Murali was a plank for committing such a basic error

Thanks for clearing that up - it didn't look to be purely a cricket ground.

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Mae hen wlad fy nhadau yn annwyl i mi

Thats actually not true, Sangakkara had the exact same opportunity in the Champions Trophy to run out Nathan Astle, in exactly the same fashion. He however called Astle back and gave him a warning, which in my opinion was the best possible course of action.

This was disappointing from the Kiwi's, for a nation who loves to bemoan the underarm incident, this is only a milder case of the same thing. The underam was within the law right? If this runout is legit, then any complaints over the underarm should stop.

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- VVVRulz..

I don't think that coment is quite fair. With the underarm incident, the batsmen had absolutely no control over the situation. True at the time it was actually a legal bowl, but only because no one had even comtemplated that someone would bowl underarm. After it happened the law was changed. Murali is experienced enough to know better in this situation and is was an unfortunate event, but if it happened against NZ I wouldn't be angry with the opposing team, more the batsmen that allowed this to happen.

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Yes, it definitely was Murali's fault. After so much experience in international cricket, he should have known the rules better.
At the same time, the wicket keeper should not have acted in that manner.

Interesting to know that Sangakara had a similar opportunity against a kiwi batsman in the champions trophy and that he ha acted in a more sporting way.

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My computer can beat me at chess.....but its no match for me at kick boxing.

Why shouldn't McCullum have behaved in that way ? You said yourself Murali was at fault. Don't you think people should be penalised for their mistakes ? If not, I wish I lived in your world.........

Undoubtebly it was Murali's fault. Mcullum as soon as he received the ball, one can observe that he could not see murali in his view and lashed on to the stumps. Though Murali's intentions were not to go in for another run, ball was still in play