Cricket Ireland has said that their limited-overs fixtures against New Zealand and Pakistan at home are at 'high risk' of being postponed in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic that continues to spread all over the world.
Earlier, the three-match ODI series and subsequent four Twenty20Is between Ireland and Bangladesh were postponed due to COVID-19, thus pushing the Irish season back to the end of May.
However, Warren Deutrom, the Chief Executive of Cricket Ireland, now hinted that the upcoming series against New Zealand and Pakistan in June-July are likely to get postponed if the government's restrictions be in place.
“We’re all going to have to take a pragmatic approach - we just don’t know what’s going to happen even if sport does get back up and running in June. With regards to international cricket, we remain in a wait-and-see holding pattern. Clearly, there is a high risk that our men’s home series against New Zealand and Pakistan - scheduled for June and July respectively - may be postponed if Government restrictions remain in place," the Cricket Ireland quoted Deutrom as saying.
Deutrom also admitted that there would be a lot of challenges in front of Cricket Ireland for completing the scheduled bilateral home series.
"Of course, some of the challenges we face in trying to bring some degree of certainty are no different to any other sport with international opposition – for example, attaining visas for visiting teams and their support staff may not be possible as the Department of Foreign Affairs and the UK Foreign Office are currently not processing visa applications. In addition, each country will take the advice of their home government, so teams may not even be in a position to travel to Europe. More specific to our situation, both New Zealand and Pakistan are visiting multiple countries on their tours, so that adds an extra layer of complexit," Deutrom added.
The Cricket Ireland Chief Executive also informed that the senior women's cricket team's tour to Thailand has already been postponed,while they are in constant in touch with the International Cricket Council (ICC) in relation to the 50-over World Cup qualifiers slated to take place in July.
“For our senior women’s team, we have already had to postpone a tour to Thailand, and we are maintaining contact with ICC in relation to the 50-over World Cup Qualifier scheduled for July. We should know more shortly – and, of course, if the tournament somehow did proceed then we would have to look at warm-up or preparation matches. Where, when, against whom – these are still great unknowns for us," he added.
Ireland are scheduled to play three ODIs and as many T20Is against New Zealand from June 19 while the Irish side are set to take on Pakistan in the two-match T20I series in July.
