New Zealand cricket great digs in over ashes move

One of New Zealand's greatest cricketers is proving as difficult to shift in death as he was in life.

Attempts to find and relocate the ashes of Bert Sutcliffe have failed because no-one recorded where they had been buried nine years ago, the Otago Daily Times newspaper reported on Thursday.

Sutcliffe's ashes were buried at the Carisbrook ground in the southern city of Dunedin in April 2001, but none of those who attended the ceremony can agree where the burial had exactly taken place.

The ground is being redeveloped and the Sutcliffe family had agreed for the ashes to be relocated to University Oval, the headquarters for cricket in the city.

"Dad's ashes are proving as elusive as bowlers found taking his wicket," son Gary Sutcliffe told the newspaper.

The ground had been prodded with turf probes, combed by a metal detector, and swept by a sonar device, all to no avail.

Sutcliffe, a left-hander, was regarded as one of New Zealand's most elegant batsmen, He played 42 Tests, with five centuries and an average of 40.1.

In a first-class playing career from 1941 to 1966, he scored a total of 17,447 runs, with 44 centuries, and a top score of 385.