Ireland agree to Afghanistan series despite 'discomfort'

Ireland's men's cricketers will play a One Day International (ODI) series against Afghanistan at Bready in Tyrone and Stormont in Belfast, even though the ruling Taliban in the county will not allow women to play sport and the majority of the Afghan women’s side have fled into exile in Australia.

Sarah Keane, the new CEO of Cricket Ireland, said that after a "robust" meeting of the board - where not all members were in agreement - the series would go ahead as planned.

In addition, Cricket Ireland has formally extended an invitation to the exiled Afghanistan women’s team to play in Ireland this summer, subject to scheduling commitments around the Afghan squad’s presence at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in England.

Keane, who spent over 20 years as the CEO of Swim Ireland, said: "Cricket Ireland has made a decision to play Afghanistan in Belfast this year and next year as well.

"I am not going to fob you off and say there is legal and financial reasons. There aren’t.

"The decision was made by the board this week taking in the views of the community, sponsors etc and the decision to play Afghanistan was the sole purpose and the only item on the agenda at the meeting.

"We also see it as an opportunity to reference the (Afghan) women's team." - Sarah Keane

"There are a couple of main reasons around that, and I want to acknowledge the discomfort we feel around that decision and our abhorrence around the treatment of women by the regime in particular.

"But we also see it as an opportunity to reference the (Afghan) women’s team.

"We didn’t just invite the men’s team to come here, we also invited the women’s team, and we are in discussions around how that might happen.

"In think scheduling may be a problem around this year, but it’s really important that they don’t fall off the agenda and we need the plight of the women’s team to be on that agenda.

"The challenge for us is how we support them and how do we support our values in relation to that?"

Ireland's men’s side will have no games in Dublin this year, with all of their games, starting with the 4 day test match in Stormont against New Zealand in May.

The financial constraints of getting Malahide ready are proving prohibitive as the governing body has to build then take down their pop-up stadium.

Malahide is also largely unavailable to Cricket Ireland this summer due to a combination of concerts and the upcoming European T20 Premier League (ETPL) which is due take place in late August and into September.

India men, the newly crowned T20 world champions, will visit Ireland to play two T20Is in Belfast this year while England have agreed in principle to play three T20Is in Ireland in 2029 and in advance of the ODI World Cup qualifiers. These matches could potentially be the first internationals to be played at their new stadium in Abbotstown.

Irelands men’s side will play Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2027 in multi-format games including Tests matches

It has also been announced that partnerships are now in place with the UAE and Nepal cricket boards for annual fixtures over the next five years and collaboration around training camps and franchise cricket opportunities for Irish players.

There also in principle support for the establishment of an annual 'Euro Nations Cup’ event – for men and women – with a likely launch date in 2027 which could involve Ireland, Scotland, the Netherlands, an English side and perhaps Italy, whose performances at the recent T20 World Cup certainly raised a few eyebrows.

The Ireland men’s team are likely to be competing in an ICC ODI World Cup qualifier event and an Olympic qualifier event in 2027 while the domestic representative season will get a reset with the men’s inter-provincial series and women’s super-series fixtures released and the establishment of a new Atlantic Series.

Click here to read article