Dublin: Due to financial constraints, Ireland Cricket have tweaked their FTP (Future Tour Programme) 2020, which includes the cancellation of a five-match T20 series against Afghanistan and the conversion of the one-off Test against Bangladesh into a T20.
Warren Deutrom, Chief Executive of Cricket Ireland, has stated that financial challenges faced by the board have been the catalyst for such a decision, even as they aim to build towards becoming a competitive Test side in the long-term.
Ireland have played three Tests since being awarded the full member status in June 2017 and Deutrom spoke of the need to carefully chart the way forward for the longest format of cricket in the country, considering it demands a “significant investment”.
“We were proud to become world cricket’s 11th Test playing nation and have a long-term commitment to that format of the game. Both fans and players alike have enjoyed the spectacle of Ireland competing in the Test arena, however we have been very careful in our approach to Test cricket and understand that it is a long-term proposition to build up a competitive side in the long game, and will require significant investment in permanent infrastructure before we can make regular Test cricket financially sustainable,” said Deutrom.
