Cricket: Tour off by agreement

India have withdrawn from next summer's tour to New Zealand, apparently at the mutual agreement of both boards.

While New Zealand Cricket remain silent about the issue, International Cricket Council president Ehsan Mani told Herald sources yesterday that the tour would not proceed as initially scheduled.

Instead, the likelihood was that the visit would be postponed until a date more acceptable to both boards, possibly as distant as November 2008.

India were supposed to tour New Zealand in February 2007, playing an undisclosed number of tests and one-dayers in what would have been a final hit-out before the start of the 2007 World Cup.

However, Mani scotched suggestions the postponement was linked to India's latest power trip, saying it was "not an arbitrary decision", and that both boards had been in agreement.

"This decision was taken before the new BCCI regime took over. It was a mutually acceptable solution."

Despite that, a senior BCCI official told the Times of India yesterday that the real reason for the rescheduling was his board's determination to avoid a repeat of their team's 2003 experience, when they were routed in New Zealand only weeks out from the World Cup.

"The conditions in New Zealand are very different from West Indies," said the unnamed official. "There is no point in touring there because any loss will only raise pressure on the team like the last time."