New Zealand‘s government has approved quarantine arrangements that might allow the Pakistan and West Indies teams to tour in coming months, the country’s cricket board said on Friday.
New Zealand Cricket chief executive David White said the tours would help the game through the coronavirus pandemic. “It’s an enormous boost for us, it’s our financial lifeline,” he told the reporters.
“International cricket funds the entire game of cricket in New Zealand, so it’s extremely, vital for us.”, White said the teams would fly to Auckland then catch a charter to Christchurch, where they might stay in quarantine while training at NZC’s high-performance center in Lincoln University.
White said all players would follow health and testing protocols set down by the govt.
“It’s not going to come cheap, we’ll be footing the bill but we are happy to try and do that and fully understand it’s a user-pays model,” he said.
“We’ll be guided by the govt, whatever they demand, we’ll follow.”
Sports Minister Grant Robertson said arranging quarantine bubbles for the touring teams had not been easy, but it had been definitely worth the effort to have an international sport in New Zealand again.
“Like many New Zealanders I’m looking forward to seeing international sport resuming,” he said during a statement.
“It may be a huge part of our culture and helps bring us together as a nation.”
In June, West Indies toured England for a three-Test tournament because the latter’s cricket board looked to revive cricket amid the pandemic. Pakistan was the second team to tour England later that month. All matches happened behind closed doors in empty stadiums to curb the spread.