New Zealand Cricket will honour its commitment to tour Pakistan, when the time is right.

In the event of New Zealand not being able to complete a re-organised tour over the next six weeks, another tour will be organised as soon as it can be reasonably scheduled in the calendar.

New Zealand has an obligation to fulfil its requirements under the International Cricket Council's 10-year Test plan and world championship.

However, it is understood no penalties exist in the rules of the championship at the moment for failing to compete.

NZC chief executive Martin Snedden said today that he had told Pakistan of New Zealand's commitment to honour the tour.

"The health of the 10-year plan is based on reciprocal tours and we fully acknowledge our obligation to tour Pakistan within the foreseeable future," he told CricInfo today.

Pakistan interests have targeted the period between May and September next year as the most likely time for the tour to be re-scheduled.

However, New Zealand has a tour to the West Indies in the last week of May and all of June.

Its next commitment is the ICC KnockOut tournament to be played in Pakistan in the last two weeks of September. After that it hosts India from the last week of November through to January, its only home tour that year, with the World Cup being held in February-March 2003.

While the period from July to mid-September 2002 was a window of opportunity, New Zealand also had to consider its need to rest players, a lesson learned after the horrific injury toll the side suffered last summer.

Snedden said New Zealand would continue to work with Pakistan to resolve the matter.

© CricInfo