Professional Cricket in New Zealand to Resume From October 19

Professional cricket in New Zealand will resume from October 19 and the first-class championship will be played following the Corona Virus protocol.

Other than six players currently in the UAE for the IPL, all of New Zealand Cricket’s (NZC) contracted players will turn out for their domestic teams for the first half of the Plunket Shield tournament.

The tournament will be played at Eden Park Outer Oval, Seddon Park and Basin Reserve. On Thursday, New Zealand Cricket (NZC) announced the schedule of the historic eight-round first-class championship, together with New Zealand’s twin one-day national competitions: the men’s Ford Trophy and women’s Hallyburton Johnstone Shield.

Richard Brewer, the board’s head of cricket operations, said that NZC had adopted the most of the ICC’s Covid-19 regulations, which many cricket followers will have already seen in effect in this year’s northern hemisphere summer.

“This means New Zealand domestic players will not be permitted to use saliva to shine the ball and umpires will no longer hold the players’ caps or other items of clothing,” said Brewer.

“The new rules also allow for the replacement of players displaying symptoms of Covid-19 during a match, with the option for the player to return to the game following a negative result.

“These measures will be overseen by the Match Referee and Match Officials and have already been successfully piloted in pre-season warm-up fixtures between domestic men’s sides.”