Ireland
will top and tail next summer with games against
England
and Australia after announcing that both sides will travel here for One-Day Internationals in 2015.
Australia will travel to Ireland at the end of the fifth and final Ashes test at The Oval for a game on August 27th, while England are likely to travel ahead of the first Test against New Zealand on May 21st, although no date has been set.
Although Cricket Ireland’s Match Allocation Committee has yet to meet on where the games will be played, a return to Malahide has not been ruled out after last September’s 10,000 sell-out for the visit of England.
The costs of hosting that game in a purpose-built temporary venue ran to €400,000 and meant there was little profit to show for the biggest crowd to attend a game in Ireland.
Cricket Ireland chief executive Warren Deutrom is confident that the spin-offs to the local economy from last year's game, estimated at a minimum of €5 million, will encourage Fingal County Council to increase their financial involvement and speed up the installation of a permanent set-up at Malahide Cricket Club.
“I know that both Malahide Cricket Club and Fingal are aware of the fact that they will need to try and mitigate that risk wherever they can,” said Deutrom yesterday. “But certainly the optics of that game were outstanding for Cricket Ireland and we’re hopeful that Malahide and Fingal are able to come up with some kind of option that can make it less of a risk than it was last year.”
The announcement of the two games means that Ireland are scheduled to play six of the top eight countries in ODIs next year.
A busy summer will also see Ireland co-host the World Twenty20 qualifier with Scotland, with the tournament running from July 9th until August 2nd.
