New Zealand have postponed their tour of Australia, initially scheduled for January 24-February 9 until further notice due to the lack of certainty over when the squad will be able to return to New Zealand.

Despite a proposal from New Zealand Cricket (NZC) and Cricket Australia (CA) to extend the length of the tour so that the Kiwi team could return home at a time more manageable for the MIQ process, the New Zealand government confirmed today it had no capacity to meet the request.

Managed Isolation and Quarantine, or the MIQ process, is an important part of keeping New Zealand safe from Covid-19. All people arriving in New Zealand by air are required to stay in MIQ facilities with very limited exceptions.

Currently there are 32 MIQ facilities in 5 regions.

NZC Chief Executive David White said the tour was initially scheduled last year, after the government signalled its intention to relax MIQ restrictions relating to the trans-Tasman border.

"As we now know, the advent of Omicron prompted a change of heart from the government, resulting in a hard 10-day mandatory isolation period being imposed on all incoming travellers," said White.

"NZC and CA had explored a proposal to expand the tour and to push out the date on which the squad might return to New Zealand, in the hope that might be more achievable for the government. But we received advice this morning that they could not provide certainty over this, either," he added.

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