Minister for Sport Catherine Martin gave the green light to Irish cricket’s governing body, Cricket Ireland, to proceed with plans to construct a permanent cricket field in at the Sport Ireland Campus in Dublin 15 last Friday.
By PA/TPN, in Ireland · 31 Jan 2023, 14:01 · 0 Comments
Previously, the Irish cricket team held Test matches at a temporary venue in Malahide, which had proven costly. Since Ireland’s ascension to becoming one of 12 Test nations in 2017, the team have only played three full matches.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport, Warren Deutrom, chief executive of Cricket Ireland said: “What’s different is that the facilities being envisioned by the government are permanent facilities,”
“It is extremely costly to put in place all of the permanent infrastructure which is required to satisfy the International Cricket Council’s exacting criteria to be able to host international cricket against the best teams in the world.
“It costs us €100,000s per year. That is clearly financially unsustainable, it has been for years. We would much prefer to be putting that funding into the game itself.
“It’s also incredibly environmentally unsustainable to have trucks, all this infrastructure moving in and out and being erected and dismantled on an annual basis.
“Having a place to call our own in Dublin is exactly what we need for a sport of our size and stature in Irish sport.
“Who pays? That’s going to be a discussion we enter into with the government. At this stage it’s too early to provide any insight into that element. Ownership and renting is a discussion we need to have with the government.”
The plans come after Ireland made a joint bid with England and Scotland to host the Men’s T20 World Cup in 2030.
“In order to co-host the World Cup in 2030 the ICC has a requirement that the canvas on which the tournament is going to be played is going to be world-class,” said Deutrom.
“We’re going to be showing off our nation to a worldwide television audience of hundreds of millions. We need to ensure that we can hold our heads up high and demonstrate that we’re capable of doing it, and that our infrastructure is commensurate with the eyeballs on us.
“Cricket is the world’s second biggest sport and our infrastructure should be commensurate with our status within the game. When we host the world’s biggest teams it simply isn’t appropriate that we’re asking them to change in marquees, especially when our competitors have sporting cathedrals like Lord’s or the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
“For our biggest matches, against the likes of England or India, we can get 10,000 people into the ground. We had two games against India last year and they sold out within a couple of days.”
“By 2028 we think it’s a realistic possibility that we’ll be asked to host an ICC qualifying event, which means that the year before, in 2027, we really need to be playing international cricket. And therefore we need to be playing domestic cricket in 2026.
“It takes three years for pitches to be built and settle in Irish conditions, which effectively means we need to start building the green stuff this year.”
Share this article: Share
In Ireland – 30 Jan 2023, 20:01
In Ireland – 30 Jan 2023, 14:01
In Ireland – 29 Jan 2023, 19:01
We are proud to provide our readers from around the world with independent, honest and unbiased news for free – both online and in print.
Our dedicated team supports the local community, foreign residents and visitors of all nationalities through our newspaper, website, social media and our newsletter.
We appreciate that not everyone can afford to pay for our services but if you are able to, we ask you to support The Portugal News by making a contribution – no matter how small.
You can change how much you give or cancel your contributions at any time.
Be the first to comment on this article
In Ireland – 30 Jan 2023, 20:01
In Ireland – 30 Jan 2023, 14:01
In Ireland – 29 Jan 2023, 19:01
In Ireland – 31 Jan 2023, 19:01
In Ireland – 31 Jan 2023, 08:31
In Ireland – 30 Jan 2023, 17:31
In News, Portugal, Europe – 31 Jan 2023, 21:06
In News, Portugal – 31 Jan 2023, 20:04
In Europe, World – 31 Jan 2023, 19:31
In Ireland – 29 Jan 2023, 09:01
In Ireland – 28 Jan 2023, 18:01
In Ireland – 28 Jan 2023, 14:03
In Ireland, North America – 28 Jan 2023, 11:05
In Ireland, Portugal – 28 Jan 2023, 08:01
In Ireland – 27 Jan 2023, 18:31
Send us your comments or opinion on this article.
Reaching over 400,000 people a week with news about Portugal, written in English, Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Russian, Romanian, Chinese, Turkish, Hindi, Portuguese, Ukrainian and Urdu.
+351 282 341 100
(Chamada para a rede fixa nacional)
info@theportugalnews.com