Ireland’s Test plans suffer another blow as one-off match against Sri Lanka postponed
Ireland's Test plans suffered a fresh blow on Wednesday as Sri Lanka announced that their one-off Test against the Irish in February 2020 has been postponed. The news comes days after the Irish board had announced major changes to its 2020 schedule to cope up with financial challenges.
Since gaining Test status, Ireland have played just three Tests — against Pakistan in May 2018, one-off matches against Afghanistan and England this year, losing all three. However, the change from Associate Member status to Full Membership has come with serious financial challenges for the board, according to its Chief Executive Warren Deutrom. As such, Deutrom had announced their plan to prioritise white-ball cricket over the red-ball game in 2020 because of the upcoming T20 World Cup and the start of the Cricket World Cup Super League, which is the qualification process for the 50-over World Cup.
This meant converting the one-off Test against Bangladesh into a T20I, but with Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) postponing the match in February, Ireland have been forced to reschedule the match for later.
"We understand that ICC (International Cricket Council) regulations require all Tests to be broadcast, and it became clear only recently that this one-off match was no exception. We were far progressed in our planning for this short tour, so we and the travelling squad are obviously disappointed," Deutrom told AFP.