Ireland likely to postpone men's bilateral series against Australia due to financial reasons

Ireland cricket team (Pic: AFP)

Cricket Ireland's director Richard Holdsworth stated that the side is like to postpone their first-ever bilateral series against the cricketing giants Australia due to financial reasons.

According to the future tour programmes, Australia is set to travel to Ireland for three ODIs and a one-off T20I clash in August and September this year, before their white-ball tour of England.

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On the other hand, Ireland is set to host Pakistan and South Africa for the white ball tours and will also host a 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.

Keeping in mind the schedule of Ireland, Holdsworth opened up about the possibility of postponing the Australia series citing the financial crisis.

"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.

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"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.

(With ANI Inputs)