Cricket: Monsoon plays part as T20s added to India tour schedule

India's monsoon season has played a part in the scheduling of New Zealand's tour matches there in August.

The tour is expected to consist of two tests and two T20 internationals, where initially it was expected to be just three test matches.

The tests have been listed for Hyderabad and Bangalore, with the shorter games in Chennai and Visakhapatnam, in a nod to the world T20 championship in Sri Lanka in September. All venues are in the south, with the monsoon season in full cry over the rest of the country.

New Zealand's first test in India was in Hyderabad in 1955, and was drawn, as have been two of the other three tests there. The exception was in 1988, when India won by 10 wickets.

New Zealand's two tests in Bangalore were both lost. The 1988 side, ravaged by food poisoning, went down by 172 runs, the other defeat coming in 1995.

New Zealand's one visit to Visakhapatnam on the eastern coast was in 1988, when an ODI was lost by four wickets.

* The naming of the New Zealand squad to tour the West Indies from late June has been delayed until the middle of April. The itinerary is due around the end of this week.

* New Zealand's under 19 team kick off their quadrangular one-day series, with a game against India in Townsville tomorrow. The other teams in the tournament, which runs until April 15, are hosts Australia and England. It is a preparatory event ahead of the under 19 World Cup, also being played in Townsville in August.