Australia and New Zealand are in early talks to schedule a trans-Tasman series to fill the gap left by next year's postponed Women's World Cup
CA in talks for NZ tour after Cup postponement
The 2021 Women’s ODI World Cup has officially been postponed, but Australia may still be headed to New Zealand next February.
Last Friday’s announcement that the International Cricket Council had decided to push the 50-over World Cup back to February and March 2022 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic left a major hole in the women’s calendar early next year.
But New Zealand Cricket and Cricket Australia are in early talks to potentially fill that gap with a trans-Tasman limited-overs series, held in New Zealand.
Should it happen, it would be the second contest between the teams of the 2020-21 summer, with the White Ferns already scheduled to travel to Australia next month for three ODIs and three T20Is.
If the tour eventuates, it would be particularly beneficial for Meg Lanning’s team, given Australia’s last away series against the White Ferns was in early 2017 and a return next year would be a well-timed refresher course in New Zealand conditions before the delayed World Cup in 2022.
Speaking on Tuesday, NZC CEO David White announced a busy home summer of cricket for New Zealand’s men, featuring series against Australia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and West Indies.
NZC CEO David White gave an update on the potential shape of the New Zealand summer schedule at today's MediaWorks Radio announcement. The team are set to tour Australia and then have a return visit from @AusWomenCricket to NZ #CricketNation pic.twitter.com/6n3x0wvG3t— WHITE FERNS (@WHITE_FERNS) August 11, 2020
The ICC’s Men’s Future Tour Programme has New Zealand slated to host Australia in three T20Is in early 2021.
White hoped further details of the summer’s fixtures could be confirmed in the coming weeks following discussions with the New Zealand Government agencies, but he noted it had been "tremendously supportive" of the measures that would be required for international series to go ahead this summer, including quarantine.
Prior to the postponement of the women’s ODI World Cup, Australia’s schedule for the showpiece event included matches at Auckland’s Eden Park, Tauranga’s Bay Oval, Wellington’s The Basin, Christchurch’s Hagley Oval and Hamilton’s Seddon Oval.
Speaking on Nine’s Wide World of Sports on Sunday, Lanning said suggested a series against the White Ferns could be a logical way of filling the gap in the schedule.
"With the window opening up in February and March next year, hopefully we can get creative and put some series in there,” Lanning said.
"New Zealand is the obvious choice, they’ve done very well with COVID and eradicating that.
"Hopefully it means we can come up with some different options, as long as we can play some cricket, that’s the most important thing.
"We understand the situation is changing all the time and it’s a very serious situation around the world, but we’re just preparing to play as much as we can and hopefully there’s some cricket throughout the summer."
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