Daily Dispatch

NZ promises bumper internatio­nal summer schedule

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West Indies, Pakistan, Australia and Bangladesh have all confirmed they will tour New Zealand during the southern hemisphere summer, New Zealand Cricket (NZC) CEO David White said on Tuesday.

Under the Internatio­nal Cricket Council’s Future Tours Programme, West Indies were scheduled to play three Tests and three T20s in New Zealand, while Pakistan will play two tests and three T20s.

The five Tests form part of the

World Test Championsh­ip.

Bangladesh were due to play both one-day internatio­nal and T20 series and Australia will round out the season in a threematch T20 series against New Zealand next March.

“We’re making tremendous progress,” White told reporters on Tuesday.

“The West Indies, they are confirmed. Pakistan have confirmed, Australia and Bangladesh. So, 37 days of internatio­nal cricket.”

New Zealand has managed to largely contain the spread of the novel coronaviru­s and has held a national rugby competitio­n in front of big crowds over the last couple of months.

White also confirmed that the “White Ferns” women’s cricket team will tour Australia in September and reciprocat­e by hosting the Southern Stars in February, when New Zealand would have been staging the postponed 50-over World Cup.

He said NZC would be looking at the biosecurit­y model being used by England to host Test series against West Indies and Pakistan and were discussing details of quarantine for incoming teams with the New Zealand government.

“It’s a lot of cricket,” he said. “We’ll just be held up for a week or two while we work with the government agencies on the managed isolation but they’ve been tremendous­ly supportive and making really good progress.”

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