Black Caps to host Australia, England for T20 series in October as Bay Oval gets season opener

Sunday, 6 April 2025

Tauranga’s Bay Oval will host Black Caps T20s against Australia in October to kick off a packed pre-Christmas schedule, before another two-month hiatus for men’s international cricket at the height of the home summer.

New Zealand Cricket chief executive Scott Weenink confirmed the Black Caps’ upcoming schedule in an interview with the Sunday Star-Times, highlighted by home and away series with the wealthy ‘Big Three’ - India, England and Australia - in a 15-month span from October to January 2027.

Weenink remained optimistic New Zealand cricket great Kane Williamson would be involved for the bulk, if not all those big ticket series.

As the Black Caps signed off their home season against Pakistan at Bay Oval on Saturday, Weenink told the Star-Times they would return there as soon as early October for three trans-Tasman T20 internationals.

Coach Brendon McCullum’s England would follow later in October for three T20Is and three ODIs before a full tour by West Indies throughout December, including three tests, three ODIs and five T20Is.

West Indies agreed to increase their originally scheduled two tests to three, but that’s where home test cricket starts and ends in 2025-26 as the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka in February-March takes precedence.

Captain Mitchell Santner’s white ball team won’t be seen in New Zealand in January or February as they tour India for three ODIs and five T20Is, before three T20Is against Afghanistan (most likely in India) as their final lead-in to the T20 World Cup. On return in March, Weenink confirmed the Black Caps would host South Africa for five T20Is to complete a home season of three tests, six ODIs and 16 T20Is.

Weenink said the venues for next season were locked in and the major associations were being notified. He said the Australia T20Is would be at Bay Oval because of its settled October climate, while the six England white ball matches - which will draw travelling fans leading into a huge Ashes series in Australia - would be spread more widely. Eden Park - endorsed last week by Auckland Council as the city’s preferred major stadium - had a “reasonable allocation” of matches.

Of the two months without Black Caps internationals - as happened this year with the ICC Champions Trophy - Weenink said: “It’s not ideal, for sure. West Indies goes through to the start of January then the Black Caps are in India. There is Super Smash on. That is just the nature of scheduling, all of it is done 3-4 years in advance so it’s about trying to work in and add games where we can.”

Weenink can’t help but let his mind wander to later next year when India visit in November 2026 for two tests, five ODIs and five T20Is. India tours are the holy grail for host nations and NZC sold Indian broadcast rights to Sony Pictures a year ago for a seven-year deal for what was understood to be well over $100 million.

“Each India tour essentially sets us up (financially) for the following four years. We’re very fortunate we’ve got locked in that 2026 tour, and then another tour locked in in 2030. They are very significant events not only for the players but for our balance sheet.”

Weenink was part of the Prime Minister’s delegation to India last month and said cricket was a hot topic throughout. Next year’s tour would celebrate 100 years of sporting contact between the two nations. “We hope for that tour to be treated a bit like a Lions tour is treated in a rugby sense, so we get real public and government support behind it,” Weenink said.

That tour is preceded by a three-test series in England in June 2026, and followed by a four-test series in Australia in December 2026 and January 2027. The latter remains the final frontier for the Black Caps (just one test victory in Australia in 2011 since their only series win there in 1985) after they broke a 36-year drought with a 3-0 sweep in India last year.

Even more remarkably, the Black Caps did so without their batting colossus Williamson who had a groin injury. He helped guide the Black Caps to last month’s Champions Trophy final, but missed home series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan, and will also be absent for the Zimbabwe tour in July featuring a T20 tri-series and two tests, as he plays county cricket for Middlesex.

Without speaking for Williamson, Weenink felt confident he would remain available for the big series and potentially the lure of winning in Australia. He sits on 9276 runs from 105 tests, including 33 centuries, with the 10,000-run mark only achieved by 15 cricketers.

“Kane is very much playing it on a series by series basis. He is still, from my conversations with him, committed to playing for New Zealand as long as he possibly can and as often as he possibly can.

“We’re working with him to pick and choose what are the key tours and the peak events we’d like him to be available for. As we saw at the Champions Trophy he is still right on top of his game.

“NZ Cricket’s motivation is to try and keep Kane playing for as long as he possibly can because we know he’s so influential, not just scoring runs but his influence on the team and the younger guys.”

Williamson, like Devon Conway, is on a casual playing agreement which includes a lower retainer and the ability to opt out of series to ply his trade elsewhere. Weenink’s preference would be for Williamson to accept a full contract when they are next offered mid-year, but pointed out he played 80% of the Black Caps’ matches in the past year on a casual contract so it made little difference.

Speaking to ESPNCricinfo in recent days, Williamson said the current arrangement suited him well with the crammed schedule of franchise and international cricket around the world.

“Things are moving quickly… It's quite interesting, but I still absolutely love playing for New Zealand and I'm looking forward to doing that again in the future. But it is nice: there are some other options you can have, and with a young family as well, it's nice that they can have me around a little bit.”

Black Caps schedule for the next 12 months

July 14-26: T20I tri-series v Zimbabwe and South Africa, Harare

July 30-August 3: 1st test v Zimbabwe, Bulawayo

Aug 7-11: 2nd test v Zimbabwe, Bulawayo

October: v Australia, 3 T20Is (home)

October: v England, 3 T20Is, 3 ODIs (home)

December: v West Indies, 3 tests, 3 ODIs, 5 T20Is (home)

January 2026: v India, 3 ODIs, 5 T20Is (away)

February: v Afghanistan, 3 T20Is (away)

Feb-March: T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka

March: v South Africa, 5 T20Is (home)