The NZ20 consortium are confident - but not adamant - they will get off the ground for next January.
The franchise league has been given conditional support by New Zealand Cricket.
NZ20 establishment committee chair Don Mackinnon says this conditional approval is enough to get things going at this stage.
"We do have a backup, NZ Cricket's very aware that it could push to January '28, but that's not our goal at the moment. We're going to work really hard to deliver it in the timeframe we've got."
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Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive