Last Updated on 5 years by Charbel Coorey

New Zealand has got the green light from the government for hosting summer internationals vs West Indies and Pakistan. Also, it is expected that the regulations could be extended for Bangladesh, Australia men’s and women’s teams and England women’s side early next year.

However, due to long quarantine norms given out by Australia and New Zealand, NZ’s limited overs tour of Australia, scheduled for early 2021, has been postponed. The news comes as the pandemic also forced the ICC to postpone T20 World Cup that Australia was to host in 2020.

“Cricket Australia looks forward to working with our good friends at the Afghanistan Cricket Board and New Zealand Cricket to deliver the matches at a time when, hopefully, the restrictions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic have eased,” CA’s interim chief executive officer Nick Hockley was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au, after the Australia-Afghanistan Test was postponed.

“It’s a huge boost for us, it’s our financial lifeline. International cricket funds the whole game in New Zealand so it’s very important. It won’t come cheap, we’ll be footing the bill, but we are happy to do that”, NZC CEO David White said.

The isolation process has been planned phase-wise after the New Zealand players return from on-going IPL. The players will reside in three days of quarantine in hotel rooms after which they will begin their bio-secure bubble stay in size up to 15 by the end of the two-week period during which they will be testing for Covid-19 multiple times.

“That 14-day managed isolation at both sides of the Tasman is a challenge,” White said. “We’ve worked with Cricket Australia on that will be fulfilling our obligations the following year.”

Written by Anjali Jha. Follow Anjali on Twitter today.