COLOMBO (Sri Lanka): Sri Lanka have postponed their one-off Test scheduled against Ireland, the Sri Lanka Cricket said in a statement on Wednesday.
The match was scheduled to take place in February 2020 while Ireland have played just three Tests since gaining Test status.
In May, 2018, in their inaugural Test in Malahide, they were beaten by Pakistan. This year they lost one-off Tests away to Afghanistan and England.
But the decision comes just days after Ireland announced major changes to its schedule for next year, with Cricket Ireland chief executive Warren Deutrom referring to challenging “financial headwinds”.
Sri Lanka Cricket said that the Ireland tour of Sri Lanka was not part of its original broadcast agreement and it would be rescheduled.
Broadcast agreement and Cricket Ireland
Cricket Ireland said it had agreed to SLC’s request to reschedule the tour to ensure the Test would come under the next broadcast agreement.
“We understand that ICC regulations require all Tests to be broadcast, and it became clear only recently that this one-off match was no exception,” said Deutrom. “We were far progressed in our planning for this short tour, so we and the travelling squad are obviously disappointed.”
Ireland has recently announced a number of changes to its 2020 schedule, scrapping a Twenty20 series against Afghanistan and converting a home Test against Bangladesh into a T20 match.
Deutrom said Ireland, awarded Test status in 2017, had been confronted with “significant financial challenges”.
“We have additionally been very open about the financial and resource constraints that we operate within, and especially a number of financial headwinds that we have faced as we transition from an Associate Member to the operations required of a Full Member,” he said.
He said costs had not been matched by expected revenues and there had been a number of unforeseen financial blows, including the postponement of the Euro T20 Slam.
Deutrom said white-ball cricket had been prioritised over the red-ball game in 2020 because of the upcoming T20 World Cup and the start of the Cricket World Cup Super League, which is the qualification process for the 50-over World Cup.
