Wellington, Mar. 8 : New Zealand cricket umpire Billy Bowden has said the very thought of being inside the umpires' mini-van that was sprayed by bullets during the terror attack on Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore last week, still sends shivers down his body.

Bowden said he could have been given duty for the Pakistan-Sri Lanka series, but the International Cricket Council (ICC) appointed him for the South Africa-Australia series.

"It''s a sobering thought," stuff. com quoted Bowden, as saying.

Wellington, Mar. 8 : Former Kiwi fast bowler Daryl Tuffey has snubbed a call from New Zealand Cricket bosses asking him to sit out of Auckland's State Championship match against Northern Districts because of his links with the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL).

According to stuff. com the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had asked New Zealand Cricket officials to ask Tuffey sit out of the game so as to adjust one of the Indian Test cricketers in the Auckland team. But Tuffey refused.

Welington, Mar. 8 : New Zealand all-rounder Scott Styris has refuted speculations of staging a comeback in Test cricket.

Stryris, who retired from the longer version of the game a year ago to focus more on one-day internationals and Twenty-20 cricket said he has no plans of putting on the whites once again.

"I''m not interested in playing Test cricket. I''ve closed that door and now I''m just looking forward to playing for Auckland and the great bunch of guys we have here," Stuff. com quoted Styris, as saying.

Wellington  - New Zealand's conservative government is restoring the traditional titles of Sir and Dame for men and women honoured by Queen Elizabeth, who remains head of state of the one-time British colony, Prime Minister John Key announced on Sunday.

The titles were abolished nine years ago by the former Labour government headed by Helen Clark, who dubbed them "quaint trappings" of the independent country's past.

Wellington, Mar. 7 : Former New Zealand wicketkeeper, Adam Parore has strongly recommended that the 2011 cricket World Cup should be moved out from sub-continent amidst the precarious security condition in the region.

Parore, in his column in The New Zealand Herald, said that the terror attack on the Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore has proved that the region is not safe for foreign teams.

Wellington, Mar 7: New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori has said that players should make their own decisions whether to travel to India for next month’s Indian Premier League.

Speaking a day after teammate Jacob Oram expressed doubts over whether he would play in the lucrative Twenty20 competition in the wake of the Lahore terrorist attack this week, three months after the Mumbai killings, Vettori described it as “a very individual thing.”