Cricket World Cup Final replay between Black Caps and England "possible"

Could a Cricket World Cup 'rematch' between the Black Caps and England be on the cards at the end of the year?

NZ Cricket boss David White says "it's possible" but not in their thinking at the moment.

England will be touring New Zealand later this year, where the Black Caps will play two tests and five T20s against the ODI world champs.

When asked by Radio Sport's D'Arcy Waldegrave about the prospect of changing one of those T20s into an ODI, which could act as a grudge match after the thrilling World Cup final earlier this month, White said the idea was interesting but not something they've considered at this stage.

"It's not on the table at the moment," White told Radio Sport. "It's a novel idea. We've agreed to T20s at this stage in preparation for the World Cup in the next 12 months but it's certainly a novel idea."

One of the curious aspects of the England tour is that the two tests won't be part of the World Test Championship – which hopes to add context to increase interest in the game's longest format – because the tour was scheduled before the announcement of the newly designed test tournament.

That, along with the fact that the T20s aren't part of qualification for next year's T20 World Cup, opens the door to a possibility of making one of those T20 matches an ODI and give fans a tantalising World Cup grudge match to settle the final which ended in a tie – where New Zealand lost by zero runs, ultimately losing because of a boundary tie-breaker.

White admitted that it would be possible but stayed tight-lipped about the potential for it to happen.

"These ones actually can be agreed amongst the countries because they're not part of the test match championship or not part of qualification for the next [T20] Cricket World Cup, that starts in 12 months time. So it's possible."

"Interesting," he added.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission