Cricket Ireland is now in talks with the Indian Cricket Board BCCI for scheduling a men’s tour for a white-ball series next summer, on their way to travel to England for the white-ball games, as per ESPNCricinfo.
Ireland’s cricket has not had a much-anticipated home season this time around. They have played in several home season games, with four of the first 8 games being washed out due to rain. The Sunday encounter against England will mark the ninth and final home match of the 2025 summer for Ireland.
CI officials discuss with BCCI counterparts over a potential tour
India will travel to England for a five-match T20I and a three-match ODI series, which has been scheduled from the 1st of July to the 19th of July next year. ESPNcricinfo understands that the Cricket Ireland officials have held discussions with their BCCI counterparts and have discussed a potential visit.
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“I opened the meeting by saying, as far as I’m concerned, the quantum of cricket that we’re playing in ’25 isn’t good enough to prepare you guys to play international cricket and to be competitive at ICC tournaments,” MacNeice said. “I’m not hiding from that.
In the last few years, India has visited Ireland for short and compact series in the shorter format of the game. In the past seven years, they have featured in 2018, 2022 and 2023.
“We mapped out our views and thoughts on what the schedule for ’26 and ’27 looks like” – CI’s chairman opened up on their plans
The Irish chairman has mentioned that they have not played sufficient home cricket this season and hence are looking forward to making some noticeable inclusions in their international schedule for the upcoming seasons of international cricket.
“We mapped out our views and thoughts on what the schedule for ’26 and ’27 looks like, and I wanted to get their input not just on the international schedule, but also the domestic schedule… It was a really positive session yesterday. There’s more work to be done, honestly, but it was a good session.”
As per the ICC Future Tours Programme, Ireland is due to host nations like the New Zealand cricket team for a one-off Test, Bangladesh for three ODIs and three T20Is, and Afghanistan for a long series that will include one Test, three ODIs, and three T20Is.
“There’s still a couple of variables that have to be figured out before we lock in the final schedule, but we’ll be hosting Test cricket here next year,” MacNeice said.
Cricket Ireland is in favour of the two-division WTC proposed by the ICC
The Irish Cricket Board’s chairperson, Brian MacNeice, has confirmed that he would be ‘very supportive’ of a proposal for a two-division ICC World Test Championship that would also lead to Ireland featuring in some red-ball matches.
The ICC has proposed a two-division form of the ICC World Test Championship, which will rank the other teams alongside the top 10-ranked Test sides in the world. The two-tier system, however, has not been accepted by any major cricket boards.
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