Cricket Ireland announce the resumption of domestic cricket in August

In light of the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the training and the schedule of matches, the women’s fixtures will feature only one-day matches and only two teams - Typhoons and Scorchers - will participate in the event. The third team - Dragons - will not be included this time, in order to make sure the tournament is of the highest possible standard.

The tournament will be played between August 3 and September 27 with eight matches to be played. The fans will be able to watch the matches remotely - with details of this to be announced later.

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“We are delighted to be making this announcement today – going back six weeks or so, we had been staring at the distinct possibility of losing our entire season. Now, we are able to announce an albeit condensed season at the inter-provincial level with 26 fixtures across the men’s and women’s competitions,” said Richard Holdsworth, Performance Director for Cricket Ireland in a statement while announcing the schedule for both  domestic men's and women's competitions.

A large contingent of Ireland players resumed training early June at three dedicated hubs across the country in bio-secure environments with all the COVID-19 safety protocols in place. Having failed to qualify for the recently concluded T20 World Cup in Australia – losing to Bangladesh in the semi-final of the qualifying event – Ireland had set their sights on the ODI World Cup qualifier. The tournament was originally scheduled to begin on July 3 in Sri Lanka, but has been postponed due to the pandemic.

“The women’s Super 50 Series comes at an opportune time, given the important 50-over World Cup Qualifier and 50-over World Cup tournaments that are still slated to be held in late 2020 and early 2021 respectively,” said Holdsworth.

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“To give the squad the best chance to qualify, we have for this season condensed the competition to two teams to keep the quality high. There is also a practical reason for this as a number of our senior international players have remained in Australia during the lockdown, and several players who would ordinarily be involved are not available at this time.”

“The Super Series will focus primarily on the 50-over format as that is the format our senior players will need to be playing in as we approach the crucially important international competitions. We are hoping the ICC will soon confirm the details of these tournaments so that we can also plan a build-up schedule and give our players and coaches adequate time to prepare properly.”

Holdsworth announced that all the matches will be played under strict public health guidance and all the resources will be used to provide a highly controlled safe environment for elite players to prepare towards the upcoming tournaments.

“A wide range of mitigating protocols and actions will be put in place for these matches to ensure player, match official and staff safety, including pre-event health questionnaires, temperature checks for all on arrival, Cricket Ireland medical and support staff being present throughout matches, and operational staff from Cricket Ireland and Provincial Unions to help ensure the safe and smooth operation of the matches,” Holdsworth added.

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“Under strict public health guidance and abiding by new elite-level cricket protocols agreed with the Government experts north and south, our plan is one of gradual introduction of 50-over cricket at an elite level during August and September. Within highly-controlled environments we will also look to operate 50-over cricket for the women’s Super 50 Series in August to help prepare the players for the pending Women’s World Cup Qualifier which is due to be played in the autumn.”

“Government guidelines will continue to be reviewed throughout the Return to Play implementation phase and our protocols will be updated accordingly,” he concluded.

Fixtures:

August 3: Typhoons v Scorchers
August 6: Scorchers v Typhoons
August 16: Typhoons v Scorchers
August 23: Scorchers v Typhoons
September 6: Typhoons v Scorchers
September 13: Scorchers v Typhoons
September 20: Typhoons v Scorchers
September 27: Scorchers v Typhoons