Sri Lanka, 1992 - New Zealand's Black Caps cricket team dodge a suicide bomber but get caught up in a web of civil war, contract disputes and fights between players and management.

In a new episode of Eyewitness, the Black Caps cricket team avoid a suicide bomb blast but get caught up in a web of civil war, contract disputes and fights between players and management.

The Black Caps were caught up in Sri Lanka's civil war violence not once, but twice - with a bomb exploding outside their hotel in 1987 and again in 1992.

"I know I made enemies out of it" - Peter McDermott

The bomb

8am, November 15, 1992: The New Zealand men's cricket team - the Black Caps - are waking up in Colombo, Sri Lanka. They've been in the country less than a day and are looking forward to some practice and working out the kinks after a long flight.

Ahead of them is a month of test matches and one-day internationals against their hosts. They're tired, a bit stiff, but cheerful and ready for a good competition.

In his hotel room, batsman Ken Rutherford's breakfast has just arrived.

"And I just plonked it on top of my bed and then - boom! The tray ended up on the floor and gee whiz, what's this?"

It's a bomb, exploding directly outside the team's hotel. The entire building shakes for several seconds afterwards.

Shocked players stumble into the corridor to check on each other and find out what's happened. No one's hurt but they want to know what's going on.

Details trickle in. A Tamil Tiger suicide bomber on a motorbike has rammed a car containing Sri Lankan navy commander Clancy Fernando. Four people, including the bomber, are dead. Later that morning, Rutherford goes down to the site of the explosion to get the lie of the land. What he sees shocks him.

"Big hole in the ground, horrible, human parts around the fence and gate area. A real sobering scene for us Kiwis."

Captain Martin Crowe asks Rutherford how it looks outside. "Not too good," he says.

He knows what he's talking about. This isn't the first time a bomb has exploded near the Black Caps or even the first time it's happened to Rutherford.

History never repeats?

Five years prior, Sri Lanka was four years into a vicious civil war between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (commonly known as the Tamil Tigers) when the New Zealand team toured there back in 1987.

Immediately after the first test ended, the Tamil Tigers exploded a huge bomb just 400m from the team hotel, destroying a bus station and killing nearly 200 people. The station was on the team's bus route home. They had missed the bomb by just a few minutes…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details