Australia's T20 tour of NZ cancelled

Australia's Twenty20 tour of New Zealand has been cancelled due to border restrictions across the Tasman.

The Australians were to play three matches in mid-March -- at the same time as the Test tour of Pakistan -- in Aotearoa, pitting last year's T20 World Cup finalists against each other again.

However, just like New Zealand's short-form tour of Australia, originally scheduled for last month, the T20 matches have been scratched as New Zealand Cricket (NZC) could not organise quarantine places for the tourists.

"The short four-day long series ... was initially arranged on the basis of the New Zealand government's plan to relax restrictions at the trans-Tasman border," a NZC statement read.

"With those plans now substantially delayed ... NZC has been given no choice but to abandon the series."

NZC chief executive David White said "at the time we scheduled the visit there was a lot of hope that the trans-Tasman border would be open".

NZC and Cricket Australia have committed to rescheduling the tour of Australia, but no such promise has been made for the games hosted by New Zealand.

NZC remains confident the rest of this summer's cricket can be played, despite the looming threat of ballooning Omicron cases.

The White Ferns play India in a short-form series before the start of the ODI World Cup next month, while the Black Caps will host South Africa for two Tests this month before the Netherlands arrive for a white-ball series in March.