Ireland’s tour of Sri Lanka postponed

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has announced that the proposed Ireland Tour of Sri Lanka, which was expected to take place in February 2020, has been postponed due to the lack of a broadcast partner.

Under the original schedule, Ireland was scheduled to play a single Test match against Sri Lanka from 8-12 February 2020.

ICC regulations require that all Tests are broadcast and the tour was not part of SLC’s original broadcast agreement, which was concluded in 2013. Cricket Ireland has agreed to SLC’s request to postpone the tour to a later date to ensure that the proposed one-off Test match would come under the next broadcast agreement, which the SLC is planning to sign with a prospective partner during 2020. The date for that rescheduled match will be announced in due course. Cricket Ireland CEO Warren Deutrom said: “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. “We were far progressed in our planning for this short tour, so we and the travelling squad are obviously disappointed. Most of all, we are deeply sorry for those family, friends, cricket fans and media who would have gone to such trouble to make arrangements to travel to Galle for the match.

“Rest assured we shall work as quickly as possible with SLC to identify an alternative slot for the match and we shall communicate that as soon as it is confirmed. We’d like to thank the Ireland fans for their continued support and understanding.”