To tour or not to tour

New Zealand Cricket will announce their decision whether to go ahead with its tour of Pakistan on Tuesday. The doubts about whether the trip would go ahead - four players dropped out because of security concerns - were compounded by Pakistan's threat to pull out of their tour of New Zealand if this one was cancelled. The financial implications of that put NZC in a fix, having to balance safety issues with commercial ones.

A statement released by NZC stated: "New Zealand Cricket is continuing to work through a process to determine whether the Black Caps will be going on their scheduled tour of Pakistan. The process may be completed tomorrow afternoon. There will be no further comment from New Zealand Cricket until the process is completed."

If the tour does go ahead, NZC will also have to name the replacements for those who have dropped out. Stephen Fleming, their captain, is returning home for treatment of an abdominal strain, and a replacement will be needed for him - besides the four men who withdrew earlier. Mathew Sinclair, Matthew Walker, Michael Mason and Andre Adams are the players tipped to replace Craig McMillan, Scott Styris, Lou Vincent and Ian Butler.

The fifth replacement might well be from the New Zealand Academy, who have played several matches over the last three weeks. The main contenders are Jesse Ryder and Ross Taylor.