New Zealand pull out of Australia tour due to Omicron threat

In an unfortunate turn of events, the New Zealand tour of Australia has been indefinitely postponed due to the Omicron threat. The tour comprising three ODIs and a T20I was set to be played between January 24 and February 9. New Zealand Cricket decided to pull out of the tour due to the New Zealand government's latest COVID-19 protocols. Given the steady spike in cases, the government has mandated a 10-day quarantine for anyone entering the country.

While Australia did offer to extend the length of the tour until the government eases the restriction, it was very difficult for the NZC to go ahead with the tour. “As we now know, the advent of Omicron prompted a change of heart from the government. NZC and CA had explored a proposal to expand the tour and to push out the date on which the squad might return to New Zealand, in the hope that might be more achievable for the government. But we received advice this morning that they could not provide certainty over this, either,” said NZC chief David White as quoted by sacricketmag.com.

This is not the first time that the Australia-New Zealand series has been pushed back due to COVID. Both boards are now working towards rescheduling the series.

"We are extremely disappointed that we won't be able to play the scheduled matches against New Zealand as planned, however we will continue to work with New Zealand Cricket to reschedule the series. We thank NZC, who made every effort to make the series happen, however, because they were unable to get certainty over return quarantine arrangements, it is simply just not possible at this time," said Nick Hockley.