Australia men's tour of Ireland faces potential postponement amid financial and venue challenges

Australia are scheduled to tour Ireland for three ODIs and a one-off T20I in August and September this year under the Future Tours Programme (FTP). As of now, Ireland are considering the postponement of their first-ever bilateral series against Australia amid the financial and venue pressures.

Australia have previously engaged in one-off ODIs in Ireland during tours to England. Currently, Pakistan and South Africa are gearing up for a white-ball series, and Ireland are slated to host a T20 tri-series against the Netherlands and Scotland. Following their recent historic Test win against Afghanistan, Ireland are set to play a one-off Test and white-ball cricket against Zimbabwe. In addition, Ireland haven't hosted a Test match since their debut against Pakistan in 2018.  

Cricket Ireland's high-performance director, Richard Holdsworth, has shed light on the potential hurdles they may encounter when hosting Australia. 

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"What we had in the FTP as a whole... it's a real challenge to deliver all of it. We've got almost too much cricket for the amount of venues that we've got. Costs of putting on games in Ireland have gone up considerably since Covid. Hotel prices, putting up temporary infrastructure for grounds have gone up astronomically," Holdsworth told ESPNcricinfo.

Holdsworth confirmed that the Australia white-ball series would not be shifted to England. Additionally, after this year, Australia does not have plans to tour the United Kingdom until the 2027 Ashes series.

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"England have a really heavy schedule around that time, and we certainly wouldn't be considering playing the likes of Australia at a very small county ground. We're still looking at all options in terms of whether or not we can host [Australia] this summer or whether we move [them] into a different part of the FTP," he added.

He continued discussing the financial challenges, mentioning that the budget was not as substantial as they had anticipated.

"It has meant that our budget is not as great as we thought it would be. If we had more revenues coming in this year, there's no question that we could have been able to deliver more," he concluded.