Ireland is considering delaying their first men’s bilateral series against Australia because of logistical and financial constraints.
Australia’s schedule for the Future Tours Programme includes a three-ODI and one T20I tour of Ireland in August and September, followed by a trip to England for another white-ball series.
However, the stress of Ireland’s upcoming busy home summer has prompted an update of the Australia fixtures and their viability. Before its tours to England, Australia has played one-off ODIs in Ireland.
In addition to hosting a T20 tri-series alongside the Netherlands and Scotland, Ireland will also host a white-ball series involving Pakistan and South Africa. Zimbabwe will play Ireland in a one-off Test and white-ball cricket match. Ireland recently emerged victorious in their first-ever Test match against Afghanistan. Since making their Test debut against Pakistan in 2018, Ireland has not hosted a match.
In women’s cricket, England, Sri Lanka, and the Netherlands are also scheduled to visit Ireland. Within the next two weeks, Ireland’s home schedule is anticipated to be revealed.
Delivering everything that was in the FTP as a whole is a significant challenge. “There’s practically too much cricket for the number of venues we have,” Richard Holdsworth, high performance director at Cricket Ireland, told ESPNcricinfo.
“Since Covid, the cost of staging games in Ireland has increased significantly. The cost of hotels and building temporary grounds infrastructure has skyrocketed.”
Holdsworth declared that England, where Ireland had previously hosted games in Chelmsford and Bristol, would not host the Australia white-ball series. Australia’s next scheduled tour of the UK will not take place until the 2027 Ashes series.
“England have a really heavy schedule around that time, and we certainly wouldn’t be considering playing the likes of Australia at a very small county ground,” he stated. “We’re still looking at all options in terms of whether or not we can host [Australia] this summer or whether we move [them] into a different part of the FTP.”
Holdsworth stated that if Ireland had been able to receive its whole ICC funding allotment from the new distribution scheme, it would have been simpler to provide the entire international calendar.
A retained surplus fund will be established and some of the money allocated to members under the distribution model will be invested before being returned to them at a later date. Of their $18 million annual allocation, about $3 million is set aside for the surplus fund.
“It has meant that our budget is not as great as we thought it would be,” Holdsworth stated. “If we had more revenues coming in this year, there’s no question that we could have been able to deliver more.”
Holdsworth stated that with negotiations over the matter scheduled for next week’s ICC meetings in Dubai, Ireland, Afghanistan, and Zimbabwe could be able to lessen the withholding of cash by only a small amount.
