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Later this year, Ireland will play a “home” white-ball series in Abu Dhabi against South Africa. Chief executive Warren Deutrom of the team’s board referred to this move as a “creative” solution to help get over “current infrastructure constraints.” When they play Zimbabwe in Stormont in July, they will also hold their second-ever home men’s Test match.
Ireland played their first men’s Test match at Malahide, close to Dublin, in 2018 after obtaining full member status in 2017. However, because they lack a permanent home stadium and the expense of temporary infrastructure is prohibitive, their six men’s Test matches since then have taken place abroad, including their historic triumph over Afghanistan in Abu Dhabi earlier this year.
They are going to play a one-off Test match this summer against Zimbabwe from July 25–29 at the Civil Service Ground in Stormont, Belfast. However, the six white-ball matches on that tour—three ODIs and three T20Is—are “not proceeding as things stand” due to budgetary and logistical issues.
Instead of playing three ODIs and three T20Is in July as planned, South Africa will instead play two ODIs and three T20Is in Abu Dhabi starting in late September. South Africa will play its second consecutive away series against Ireland on neutral territory after Cricket Ireland relocated two Twenty20 Internationals to Bristol, England, in 2022.
“This fixture schedule attempts to strike a balance of competitive, high-quality cricket across multiple formats whilst addressing the challenges we face with respect to our current infrastructure constraints,” Deutrom said. “While we work on longer-term solutions for some of these challenges – most notably continuing to advocate to Government for the proposed permanent stadium – we know we’ll have to explore ways to creatively increase our capacity to host an ever-increasing schedule in the short term.
“Continually reviewing how best to optimise our hosting arrangements for cricket in Ireland and playing a few of our home matches in neutral venues overseas is something we must continue to explore, as we have done with the South Africa series this year.”