According to reports, Ireland Cricket won’t be able to host the Australian team for the upcoming white-ball tour. Under the future tours program, Ireland is scheduled to host the Australian team for three ODIs and one-off T20I in August and September.
However, it has been understood that the hosts are facing financial and venue challenges in hosting the big cricketing nation. As of now, Ireland is contemplating on postponement of the tour, which is also their first-ever bilateral tour against Australia.
The two have previously locked horns with each other in one-off ODIs, which took place in England. During the summer, Ireland is set to play a white-ball series against South Africa and West Indies. Besides, they are scheduled to host a T20 tri-series, including teams such as Netherlands and Scotland.
Additionally, England, Sri Lanka, and Netherlands women’s teams will also be visiting Ireland, soon.
Recently, Cricket Ireland’s high-performance director shed light on the financial constraints being faced by Ireland in hosting Australia.
“What we had in the FTP as a whole… it’s a real challenge to deliver all of it. We’ve got almost too much cricket for the amount of venues that we’ve got. Costs of putting on games in Ireland have gone up considerably since Covid. Hotel prices, putting up temporary infrastructure for grounds have gone up astronomically,” Holdsworth told ESPNcricinfo.
Ireland is not interested in shifting the venue to England but looking are other options for hosting Australia.
“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. 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,” he added.
“It has meant that our budget is not as great as we thought it would be. If we had more revenues coming in this year, there’s no question that we could have been able to deliver more,” he concluded.
Ireland had, recently, won the historic Test against Afghanistan by 6 wickets. They are currently playing a three-match ODI series against the Afghans and it will be followed with as many T20Is.
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