New Zealand to have warm-up in Cairns tournament

New Zealand are likely to accept an invitation to play in a one-day tournament in Cairns in August with New South Wales, Tasmania and Queensland.

New Zealand Cricket (NZC) operations manager John Reid told CricInfo today that NZC had been planning for some preparation before the International Cricket Council Champions Trophy tournament in Sri Lanka in September.

"We wanted some sort of build-up, because our team would have been going there after having at least two months of a New Zealand winter.

"Temperatures at the time of the Champions Trophy are expected to be between 30-40 degrees Celsius," he said.

The best option would have been to play in Asia but with the political situation in India and Pakistan this would have been a difficult proposition, especially given the recent experiences suffered by the New Zealand team when a bomb blast occurred outside their Karachi hotel and forcing the early end of their tour.

The Cairns Cricket Association approached NZC with an invitation to take part in a small tournament they were setting up which was being held before the ICC tournament.

"We are evaluating it at the moment but it is likely New Zealand will take part," Reid said.

It would be an ideal opportunity for the New Zealand players to re-adjust to the warmer temperatures and would allow NZC to organise a training camp in Cairns by going there earlier than the tournament's scheduled start.

The team would then leave from Cairns for Sri Lanka where they have a practice match before their tournament opener against Australia.

The tournament build-up, and the tournament itself, were all being seen as part of New Zealand's World Cup preparation, Reid said.

And Auckland bowler Kyle Mills, who is not contracted to NZC this year, is travelling to Darwin in August to play some club cricket for the Waratahs Cricket Club with an eye to possibly winning a place in the ICC Champions Trophy side.

Mills, who has played eight One-Day Internationals for New Zealand, has been recovering from an injury which kept him out of much of the last domestic season.