New Zealand Sports Minister Grant Robertson gives green light for Australia, England tours

While the New Zealand Cricket (NZC) has a big plan of hosting West Indies, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Australia over a maximum of 37 days across four months among the men, the Australia and England women’s teams are expected to come during the summer.

Robertson also informed the talks are on with the immigration officials and once they finalise everything with the sporting bodies, the schedule will be out soon.

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“The discussions have been good and generally speaking they’ve been very comfortable with the various criteria and arrangements that we’ve been working on,” Robertson told Stuff. “I’m not going to say it’s signed, sealed and delivered but the discussions have been positive, just as they have been with rugby as well. We feel we are ready to host international teams.”

However, NZC chose to stay mum regarding the developments. “We’re awaiting a decision from the Government and we don’t want to comment before we’ve received that,” it said in a statement. It has also been understood that Queenstown and one unnamed location will be the options for mandatory 14-day quarantine for the touring sides in hotels which will also have training facilities.

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The training bubbles will be restricted to 15 players after the initial three days in isolation and a negative COVID-19 test. It is also learnt that the domestic schedule for the upcoming season will only be finalized once the dates of the international tours are confirmed.

A 17-member Sophie Devine-led side are currently in isolation on one floor in Australia ahead of their three T20I and three ODI series starting September 27. The players are using the service lift to catch the bus for training where they are having temperature checks and also have hand sanitising stations.

Even after their return, the players will have to serve the mandatory quarantine for 14 days.