India cancel New Zealand tour

India have withdrawn from their scheduled tour of NZ prior to the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies, a tour that will now take place no sooner than November 2008.

India’s last tour of New Zealand was also just before the World Cup, that tournament being held in South Africa in 2003, and their heavy loss, 2-0 in the tests and 5-2 in the ODIs, in unsuitable conditions put major pressure on the side late in the Cup preparation.

An unnamed BCCI official says that as the conditions in New Zealand are very different to those of the West Indies, there is no point in visiting New Zealand for that very reason, pressure being put on the team by suffering a likely loss in the foreign conditions.

New Zealand Cricket must now for the third year in a row put together a makeshift summer itenerary. In 2004-2005 Sri Lanka were forced to return home after the tsunami, and this season Zimbabwe were forced to tour after the New Zealand government said it wouldn’t allow the team to enter New Zealand for political reasons.