The Men’s Australian Kookaburras will no longer head to Auckland to compete in next week’s Trans-Tasman series, due to an evolving COVID-19 situation coinciding with the New Zealand men’s hockey team.
The news will prevent the Vantage Black Sticks Men’s Team and the Kookaburras from competing on the scheduled days of the 4-match series, (10/12/14/15 May).
However, the series has been rescheduled with the matches to now take place on Tuesday 31st May, Thursday 2nd, Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th June, with start times to be confirmed.
Hockey Australian high-performance director, Bernard Savage said all sporting codes face the same uncertainty in light of the ongoing pandemic.
Savage said: “Any sporting competition and event in the current climate is open to the risk of COVID and unfortunately it has happened with New Zealand’s Men’s Team.”
“This is obviously unfortunate as the Kookaburras were looking forward to getting to Auckland and competing next week.
“We send our well wishes to the New Zealand squad and hope they navigate their way through it, make a speedy recovery and get back to training and playing as soon as possible.
“Thanks to the positive collaboration with Hockey New Zealand, it is great to have rescheduled dates confirmed for the matches later this month,” said Savage.
The Hockeyroos and Vantage Black Sticks Women’s teams will compete next week as scheduled, although the start times have been readjusted.
