Ireland to prioritise white-ball cricket in 2020 due to financial challenges
Cricket Ireland have announced that the board has made tweaks to their FTP 2020, prioritising white-ball cricket due to financial challenges faced by the board. The decision results in a cancellation of a five-match series against Afghanistan and a one-off Test against Bangladesh.
Having been granted Full Membership by the ICC, the Ireland cricket board set their sights on building towards becoming a competitive Test side in the long-term. However, the board’s Chief Executive Warren Deutrom has noted that the transition from associate member to full member has been hard to deal with in terms of financial headwinds, despite ICC being supportive.
"We have additionally been very open about the financial and resource constraints that we operate within, and especially a number of financial headwinds that we have faced as we transition from an Associate Member to the operations required of a Full Member," Deutrom said, reported Cricbuzz.
"The ICC has been supportive in giving us this opportunity, but the reality to date has been Cricket Ireland dealing with significant financial challenges. The costs associated with delivering to Full Membership standards and fulfilling a much greater number of international fixtures each year has not been matched by expected revenues and a number of key unforeseen financial blows,” he said.
With Ireland not a part of the ICC World Test Championship, Deutrom rightly pointed out the need to play a Test match at home, especially given that there are a T20 World Cup and an ODI league to look ahead to.
"The first area of prioritisation for 2020 has been white-ball cricket over the red ball. Unfortunately, our financial constraints have led us to cut the home Test match next year. As the Test does not form part of the World Test Championship, the one-off match lacks context,” he said.Â
Instead, the board will extend their tours against Bangladesh and NZ, while also welcoming Pakistan over for a T20 series.
“With Bangladesh and NZ coming over for important ODIs, it makes sense to extend their tours with complementary T20Is. Similarly, Pakistan is the #1 T20I team in the world and have proven popular visitors here over the years. The ODIs and remaining T20Is next year, on the contrary, both have greater context and direct connections to two upcoming World Cups," Deutrom added.