Ireland will kick off a busy 2020 with West Indies trip
IRELAND will go island hopping at the start of next year when they travel to West Indies for a six-match white ball series.
Barbados, Grenada and St Kitts will be the venues for the two-week tour which begins with three one-day internationals, followed by three Twenty20 clashes.
The famous Kensington Oval, home of Sir Garfield Sobers and the three Ws, will host the first two ODIs on January 7 and 9 before the squad travel to Grenada for the final ODI on January 12 and the first T20 international three days later.
Ireland played in both Barbados and Grenada at the 2007 World Cup but it will be their first visit to the island of St Kitts when they play the final two T20s back-to-back on January 18 and 19.
Both the ODIs in Barbados will be day/night games starting at 1pm local (5pm GMT), while the games at the National Cricket Stadium in Grenada are day games starting at 9.30am (1.30pm GMT) and 1pm respectively.
The two games in Warner Park, St Kitts will be under the lights at 6pm (10pm GMT).
This will be the first time Ireland and West Indies will have played a three-match series in any format, although the teams met at Malahide in May as part of an ODI Tri-Series also involving Bangladesh.
West Indies won both games convincingly, by 196 runs and five wickets. Jason Holder’s side also came out on top at the World Cup qualifying tournament in Harare last year, triumphing by 52 runs.
It will be a first visit to West Indies by Ireland since 2014 when they lost the one-off ODI in Jamaica but shared the T20 series after winning the first game by six wickets, Ed Joyce finishing 40 not out.
The squad will also play a 50over warm-up on January 4.
It is the first tour of what promises to be a hectic 2020, with the squad returning home for only 10 days before heading to Sri Lanka for their fourth Test match, in Galle, scheduled to start on February 8, followed by a Test and three T20s against Afghanistan, in India in March and, assuming their ICC suspension is lifted, a Test and five T20s against Zimbabwe in April.