Venue for India-New Zealand Women’s Series Revised to reduce COVID-19 Risk

New Zealand Cricket has announced an updated schedule for the 2022 international cricket season in the country. Though the dates remain as per schedule, changes are made in the venues to limit domestic travel in order to reduce the risk of Covid-19 as much as possible.

This has brought travel changes for both the Black Caps and the White Ferns who are scheduled to play a number of matches on the home ground from February onwards. While the Black Caps host South Africa, Australia, and the Netherlands, the White Ferns host India followed by the 2022 ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup. It is to be noted that no changes to the World Cup schedule are announced as of now. However, the only T20I and five ODIs against India that were to be played in Napier, Nelson, and Queenstown, will now solely be played in Queenstown.

As reported by icc-cricket.com, commenting on these venue changes, New Zealand Cricket chief executive David White said,

“These risk mitigations are based on avoiding known Covid-19 hotspots, and include limiting air travel, limiting accommodation transfers and, essentially, operating in safer environments.

“We know the more domestic flights we have, and the more movement there is between hotels, the greater the chance of a match or even a series being put at risk,” he added

Being considered as an opportunity to prepare well for the World Cup in March, India and New Zealand will play their first match of a packed 2022 season on February 9 with the one-off T20I. This would be followed by 5 ODIs from February 11, ending the series just a week before the big competition.

Squad for team India has already been announced and the team has reached New Zealand where they are under mandatory quarantine while New Zealand is yet to release their squad.

Schedule: India Women’s tour of New Zealand 2021