Ireland likely to postpone their maiden men’s bilateral series against Australia due to financial reasons
New Delhi [India], March 7 (ANI): Cricket Ireland’s high-performance director Richard Holdsworth, stated that Ireland are considering postponing their first-ever men’s bilateral series against Australia due to financial reasons. Under the Future Tours Programme, The Baggy Greens are set to tour Ireland for a three-match ODI series and a one-off T20I clash in August and September this year, before their white-ball tour of England. Ireland are set to host Pakistan and South Africa for the white ball tour and they will host a T20 tri-series with the Netherlands and Scotland. They will also host their first Test match since making debut in 2018 with Zimbabwe travelling to feature in a one-off Test and white-ball cricket. With a busy cricket schedule ahead of Ireland, Holdsworth opened up about the possibility of postponing the Australia series due to financial issues. "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," Cricket Ireland high-performance director Richard Holdsworth told ESPNcricinfo. "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," he added. Holdsworth also stated that the white-ball series would not be shifted to England as they have previously hosted games in Chelmsford and Bristol. "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 said. Holdsworth also suggested that it would have been easier to host the games if they had access to its full allocation of ICC funds. "It has meant that our budget is not as great as we thought it would be," Holdsworth said. "If we had more revenues coming in this year, there’s no question that we could have been able to deliver more," he added. (ANI)