New Zealand bank on World XI series

New Zealand Cricket is hoping for a World XI series to bail them out after India turned down an offer to tour the country to fill in for Sri Lanka's cancelled tour following the Asian tsunami disaster in Asia.

Martin Snedden, the chief executive of the board, told New Zealand Herald that he wasn't surprised and completely understood India's reluctance to pull their national players out of their domestic competition. "I was never hopeful, but we didn't have many options open to us, and we couldn't afford to assume anything."

With New Zealand not scheduled to play until they host Australia at the end of February, the final alternative to salvage the first half of the summer's international programme now rests mainly on the hope that NZC and the players' association can entice a world team to tour later this month. However, hosting a world XI would be an expensive exercise for NZC as they would have to fly players from all over the world, as well as pay match fees and bonuses for both teams.

"The initiative effectively depends on enough high-calibre players being recruited to make the series viable, and in a nutshell that comes down to money," Snedden told the newspaper. "We want to be able to sell the television rights to underpin the series, and we're working pretty hard on that at the moment." The ICC has given the board the go-ahead, though, and Heath Mills, the New Zealand Players Association spokesman, reported keen interest from prospective World XI players. Most of the line-up is likely to comprise Australian and England Test players who wouldn't be involved in their countrys' one-day engagements, and a few Sri Lankan players.

New Zealand were scheduled to host five one-day internationals and two Tests against the Sri Lankans but the tour was postponed after one match because of the tsunami that killed over 150,000 people.