New Zealand cancel return Zimbabwe tour

Martin Snedden: 'Attempts to replace the cancelled Zimbabwe tour have been partially successful' © Getty Images

New Zealand Cricket has announced that the controversial tour by Zimbabwe later this year has been cancelled after it became clear that the NZ government would not grant visas to any of the Zimbabwe players.

There had been considerable pressure on the government to stop the New Zealand side travelling to ZImbabwe earlier this month, but that was not within its powers. However, they made it very apparent that they would stand in the way of any recipricol tour.

But the announcement caught ZImbabwe officials on the hop, with Lovemore Banda, the ZCU's media officer, telling reporters that his board "has not been informed of this by NZC and therefore we cannot respond."

Martin Snedden, the chief executive of the New Zealand board, said the summer programme had been expanded because of the decision. "Attempts to replace the cancelled Zimbabwe tour have been partially successful," Snedden was quoted as saying in a New Zealand Press Association report. "The West Indies Cricket Board has agreed to a third Test match which will assist us to mitigate any potential losses from the cancelled tour."

New Zealand were originally meant to host West Indies in two Tests but have now reached an agreement to play a three-Test series. West Indies will also play five one-dayers and a Twenty20 match on its six-week tour while New Zealand will warm up for the series with three ODIs against Australia in December and four more against Sri Lanka over the New Year. The four-game one-day series against Sri Lanka was supposed to be played last summer but was postponed in the wake of the tsunami that devastated large parts of Asia.

West Indies will play Tests in Auckland, Wellington and Napier. The first Test is scheduled at Eden Park from March 9 and it will mark the 50th anniversary of New Zealand's first Test win, also against West Indies.