Ireland to host India and New Zealand on summer tours
Lara Tenison-Woods |
The ICC’s Future Tour Programmes (FTP) are fast approaching with the first matches set to start in a month. Ireland will be hosting India and New Zealand for a series of T20 and ODI matches.
The T20 tours are short cricket matches. During a T20 match, each team is only allowed 20 overs. A single over includes six deliveries from the fielding team to the other team’s batsman.
This summer’s T20 tours are T20I or Twenty20 International. The rules are the same but the teams competing are international members of the International Cricket Council (ICC).
The ODI or One Day International matches are longer cricket matches. Each team is allowed to bat 50 overs.
This summer’s season will start with T20 cricket matches.
When are the matches set to take place ?
Ireland will face India for two rounds of T20 matches. The first one is set to take place on the 26th of June and the second one on the 28th of June.
After that, Ireland will face New Zealand for three sets of T20 matches. You can watch the first one on the 18th of July, the second one on the 20th of July and the third on the 22nd of July.
As for the ODI tours, they will kick off on the 10th of July with Ireland competing against New Zealand. Both teams will play against each other again on the 12th of July and the 15th of July.
Who is likely to win ?
In total, there are thirteen cricket matches scheduled to take place in Ireland over the summer. The Irish team is expected to perform well but there is a chance New Zealand maybe too good for the Irish.
New Zealand are currently ranked number one in the world for the ODI format cricket matches.
In 2021, New Zealand also came in 2nd place at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. This year, they could win both the T20 and the ODI summer tours.
The Indian team are also a serious competitor. During their last visit to Ireland in 2018, they won 2-0 (T20) against Cricket Ireland.
This summer, the Indian team could secure another victory against Ireland during the T20 tours.
Despite these past losses, Ireland might still win this year’s tournaments. The Ireland Cricket Team does remain one of the best cricket playing nations in the world.
Cricket fans who are keen to place sports bets on Ireland’s upcoming summer test matches can head to a range of online betting sites in Ireland. Due to the popularity and increase in demand of cricket growing, more sportsbooks are now offering a variety of cricket bets.
Why does cricket have summer tours ?
The summer tours were created to allow cricket teams to compete against each other. The Future Tours Programmes (FTP) facilitate international competitions, encounters and exchanges.
As part of the FTP, each international cricket team has to play against all other international cricket teams at least once at home and once abroad.
Two cricket teams can agree to compete more than once and to face each other in a neutral country. This can happen if there are political tensions or safety issues in one country.
The ICC World Test Championships
The 2021-2023 ICC Future Tours Programme also includes the inaugural ICC World Test Championships.
The ICC World Test Championship was launched in 2019 but was paused until 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2021, the winning team was New-Zealand, with India as runner-up.
The next ICC World Test Championship’s final is set to take place in 2023.
In order to compete in the ICC World Test Championship, nations have to be in the world’s top nine cricket teams.
Ireland is currently number 11 on the ICC’s ODI ranking. On the ICC’s Twenty20 rankings, they are number 14.
The preparation of the summer tours
In preparation for these summer tours, cricket teams practice in their home countries before either travelling to other countries for the matches or hosting them themselves.
This year, both the Indian and New Zealand teams will have to travel to Ireland. With the easing of Covid-19 restrictions, their travel should not be too difficult.
However, despite some countries’ relaxed attitude towards Covid-19, the tours have not been easy to organise. Cricket tours in Zimbabwe and Bangladesh have been postponed to 2023 because of the sanitary situation.
The Chief Executive of Cricket Ireland confessed that organising the summer tours was no easy task. Now, he is convinced that they will be a success.
He added that this year, Ireland is “hosting a record amount of men’s cricket against some of the world’s top teams” despite Covid-19 setbacks.
These summer tours come after a long four year wait for Irish fans. In a month, they will finally have the opportunity to watch Ireland compete at home.
These summer’s tours will help determine who the next ICC World Test Championship’s finalists will be. A couple of victories could help Ireland climb up the International Cricket Council’s rankings.
Either way, these FTP tours promise to be entertaining for fans and this summer will go down as the “biggest summer of international cricket ever in Ireland”.
After the matches in Ireland, the remainder of the summer tours will take place in Bristol, England. Irish fans looking to attend the full tours could travel to the neighbouring country for the occasion.
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