News

The New Year is here and there is plenty going on at Cricket Ireland as the Men and Women gear up for what will be an incredibly busy spring and a packed summer of action.
Both squads are already back in action, with the Women having the slightly tougher start to the year with fitness testing held at Morton Stadium ensuring nobody got themselves too out of shape over the holiday period.

The side had some time off cricket after beating Bangladesh in the ICC World T20 Qualifiers last month, but kept up their gym work and return to cricket action this week as preparations for the World T20 in India really get going.

The side will fly out to India in eight weeks and will face South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Sri Lanka in the group stages of the tournament, with games in Mumbai, Delhi, Mohali and Chennai.

Ireland’s Men will take to the field somewhat earlier than the Women in 2016, with their first competitive action of the year coming before January is up, as they face Papua New Guinea in the ICC Inter-Continental Cup on January 31st in Townsville, Australia.

The side travel down under in mid-January, ramping up training and playing a warm-up match on the 24th and 25th January in Brisbane before making the final part of the journey up to Townsville for the all-important ICup game.

The side will be looking for their third straight win in the competition in order to cement their place at the top of the table as the competition approaches the half way stage. So far they have recorded innings victories over both the UAE and Namibia in the competition.

Rather than heading straight back to Ireland after the ICup, the Ireland squad will remain in Townsville to play three T20 matches against Papua New Guinea as they get their own preparations for the ICC World T20 firmly underway.

After those matches the side will stop off in Abu Dhabi on the way home and play three further T20 matches, two of them T20 Internationals. The matches, and additional time away will help the side prepare with competitive action as well as additional outdoor training as the tournament approaches.

Their competition gets underway slightly earlier than the Women, with the Men based in Dharamsala for the duration of the first group stage of the tournament, during which they will face Oman, The Netherlands and Bangladesh in the northernmost venue of the World T20.
After the World T20 in March both sides will return home and have a very short period of rest before heading into the Irish season full throttle, with the Hanley Energy Inter-Provincials, Women’s Super 3’s and plenty of cricket on Irish soil over the summer.

Malahide will play host to Sri Lanka in June, with the current World T20 Champions playing two ODI’s on June 16th and 18th in the Village, with tickets available now for individual matches, or as a two match package.

Later in the year Pakistan will also visit Malahide, again for two ODI matches on August 18th and 20th. Tickets are once again available for these fixtures as single match or series packages.

The best way to keep up with all the action and to guarantee tickets to all of Ireland’s matches in 2016 is to purchase one of the range of Cricket Ireland membership packages available to cricket fans of all ages.

You can get all the information you need, and purchase online right here.

Happy New Year to all our fans, we will see you in the coming months!

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Connaught