The dream of an international cricket triple-header between the New Zealand Black Caps and greatest rival Australia at McLean Park has been short-lived, with the series now cancelled.
It would have been the teams' first matches together in Napier since the controversial cancellation of a one-day limited-overs match, with the stadium full, in February 2017.
In a decision announced just a fortnight ago, the matches had been reallocated to Hawke's Bay's home of major international and provincial cricket and rugby as part of a rearrangement of schedules amid the conditions of the red-light setting of the Government's Covid-19 Protection Framework.
But New Zealand Cricket has announced that with border-control relaxation delayed and no managed isolation available for the Australian team upon arrival in New Zealand, it had no option but to abandon the series.
When New Zealand Cricket announced its summer internationals schedule in November, McLean Park was allocated just the third match of the Twenty20 series, and two women's internationals between the White Ferns and India, which had been scheduled for this week but are now both being played in Christchurch.