Black Caps-Australia ‘bubble’ on the cards
Australia and New Zealand are in talks about taking advantage of a travel bubble and rebooting the international game with a transTasman rivalry.
The news comes as Cricket Australia’s battle to get NSW and Queensland to agree to have grants from head office slashed took another twist, with Western Australia confirming it would accept the cut but only if the other state associations signed up too.
New Zealand Cricket chief executive David White told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age on Tuesday he was in talks with CA counterpart Kevin Roberts about matches between Australia and the Black Caps being added to the calendar when travel restrictions between the countries ease.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison and New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern last week agreed to pursue the plan for a quarantine-free travel zone ‘‘as part of the road back’’ from the Covid-19 lockdown.
Australia’s players will be starved of cricket over winter, with the Indian Premier League and a test tour of Bangladesh abandoned, a limited-overs tour of England in July almost certain to follow suit, the Hundred in England cancelled and the County Championship held up indefinitely.
The next matches scheduled in
Australia are against Zimbabwe in August but they are far from certain to go ahead. The same applies to the Twenty20 World Cup in October and November.
The answer may be for Australia and New Zealand to kick-start the international game with transTasman matches between their men’s and women’s teams.
The final two matches of a threegame men’s ODI series between the teams were called off in March after the first had been played behind closed doors at the SCG.
‘‘I’ve talked to Kevin Roberts about that,’’ White said. ‘‘We’ve been having regular conversations with Cricket Australia looking at all different kinds of opportunities.
‘‘A Tasman bubble would be terrific if it did eventuate .0th. . it would present some opportunities going forward. But I think the key is to keep an open mind and be flexible so if opportunities do arise we can take them.’’
While they’re working closely on scheduling, the two organisations have reacted differently to the global crisis.
There is uncertainty over the Kiwis’ home international summer – Pakistan and West Indies are due there for tests and Sri Lanka in the shorter form – but NZC wants to make sure its domestic and pathway programmes remain untouched.
‘‘We are slightly fortunate in that we are kind of small but we will be impacted as well, no doubt about that,’’ White said.
‘‘What we will do, though, is play the full season of domestic first-class cricket, men’s and women’s. We’re committed to that and it’s very important that we do that. We’ve also committed the same level of financial support to the community game as we did this year.
‘‘If there is any cost-cutting to go ahead, we’ll probably be doing that at head office.’’