New Zealand's tour of Zimbabwe has been postponed until June next year.
New Zealand Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan and his Zimbabwe Cricket counter-part Ozias Bvute agreed to postpone the tour, which had been due to take place in July, following discussions at an International Cricket Council meeting in Johannesburg.
Last week New Zealand Prime Minister John Key hinted that he was ready to step in and prevent the Black Caps from travelling.
'I am deeply sceptical they should be going. In my view there are a number of risks there,' Key said.
'There are security risks for our players. There is the risk of cholera and quite frankly we don't support that regime and we've made that quite clear.'
Vaughan said Zimbabwe Cricket was aware of the New Zealand government's opposition to the proposed tour and asked for the deferral as they believed by 2010 the current political power-sharing arrangements will have had a positive impact.
'This is a pragmatic solution that allows the situation in Zimbabwe to be monitored over the next year,' Vaughan said.
'Given that Zimbabwe remains a full member of ICC we have continuing obligations to play them on a reciprocal basis - therefore this agreement is an acceptable outcome for the present time.'
No decision on whether a replacement tour for July will be sought has yet been made.
