New Zealand in the dark about Pakistan tri-series plans

New Zealand Cricket has no news on its suggested participation in a tri-series in Kenya with Pakistan and Australia.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) yesterday commented that it had decided to use Kenya as a home venue for the series as the result of Australia and New Zealand not wanting to travel to Pakistan for security reasons.

However, New Zealand Cricket (NZC) knows nothing of the plans.

NZC chief executive Martin Snedden said today that before the bomb blast that shortened New Zealand's Test and one-day tour to Pakistan in May, there had been some initial discussion of a possible tri-series at the end of Australia's Test tour of Pakistan and before the start of the ICC Champions Trophy tournament in Sri Lanka.

There had also been an informal chat between Snedden and the head of the PCB Brigadier Munawar Rana at the recent ICC meeting in London.

Snedden committed to giving the matter some thought but nothing in writing had been received from Pakistan and nor had there been any conversations since London with anyone from Pakistan.

And certainly there had been no mention of Nairobi as a venue.

Snedden did say that such a tournament was a possibility but until some clear guidelines had been received from Pakistan it would remain only as a possibility.

NZC are also looking at the possibility of playing in a four-way series in Cairns in Australia as build-up for their defence of the ICC title. They would play three Australian state sides if that avenue was pursued.

The Pakistan Board has released a tentative schedule which would see matches being played between August 25 and September 7.

The ICC Champions Trophy is to start on September 12, with the opening match between hosts Sri Lanka and Pakistan. New Zealand and Australia play each other in their first match on September 15.