Irealand planning to reschedule their first ever men's bilateral series against Australia

Ireland are considering postponing their first ever men’s bilateral series against Australia because of financial and logistical pressures. 

Australia are slated to tour Ireland for three ODIs and a one off T20I in August and September under the Future Tours Programme. They will then tour to England for further white ball action.

But the likely pressure of a jam packed home summer ahead for Ireland has forced them to rethink the Australia fixtures and whether they can go ahead. Previously the Kangaroos played one-off ODIs in Ireland around the tour of England. 

South Africa and Pakistan are set to play a white ball series, while the men in green will also host a T20I tri series with Scotland and Netherlands. Ireland, who recently registered their first ever Test win against Afghanistan, are scheduled to play Zimbabwe in a one-off Test and white-ball cricket. Ireland have not hosted a Test match since their debut back in 2018. 

England, Netherlands and Sri Lanka are also designated to tour Ireland in women’s cricket. The home schedule for Ireland is expected to be out within a fortnight. 

"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," said Cricket Ireland high performance director, Richard Holdsworth

"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 stated that the Australia white ball project would not be moved to England, where previously the Irish have hosted matches Bristol and Chelmsfored. After this year, the men in yellow will not tour the UK until the 2027 Ashes. 

"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," he said. "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."

Holdsward said disclosing the entire international schedule would have been relatively easy had Ireland access to its complete allotment of ICC funds from the new distribution framework. 

A fragment of the funds allocated to the members in the distribution model will be injected into a retained surplus fund, which will be invested and distributed back amongst the members subsequently. Nearly US$3 million of their $18 miller a year allocation is fixed for the surplus fund.

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."

Holdsword mentioned Ireland, along with Zimbabwe and Afghanistan, may be able to cut the short the withholding of funding by a little percentage with discussions on the issue set for upcoming week’s International Cricket Board meetings in Dubai.