New Zealand look for make-up matches

New Zealand Cricket will investigate organising an international series to fill the gap caused by the postponement of the Champions Trophy. The national team is now not due to play until it tours Bangladesh in October, a contest which will act as a warm-up for the two Tests in Australia in November.

Justin Vaughan, the New Zealand Cricket chief executive, said finding opponents was "a bit of a long-shot", but they could be helped because the other major outfits were also free of commitments for most of September. "We'll monitor the environment and see if any of the other countries are willing to participate," Vaughan said in the Dominion Post. "We're keen but I guess we'll just wait and see."

The weather in New Zealand would prevent them hosting, but Vaughan said the team was happy to travel. "It would be good for the guys to get a bit of cricket prior to the Bangladesh tour and they're all fit and ready to go," he said.

Heath Mills, the New Zealand players' association executive manager, said postponing the Champions Trophy was the "only sensible decision". "It took the ICC a while to reach the right conclusion but they eventually did," he said in the Press.

New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, England and West Indies all indicated to the ICC they were not prepared to attend the event. Mills hoped the situation in Pakistan would improve over the next year so the tournament could go ahead.