Scots and Irish apply to host World Cups

Scotland and Ireland have submitted declarations of interest to the International Cricket Council about hosting global events – including World Cups – in the 2023-31 international calendar.

There are 28 ICC events planned for that cycle, across the men’s and women’s games and under-19 level. These include one-day international and Twenty20 World Cups.

“We have put our name in the hat for that,” said Gus Mackay, the chief executive of Cricket Scotland. “The ICC is working through the next steps. A number of countries have shown that interest and then they will come back and discuss that further with us.”

Scotland have hosted only two games in a global ICC event, both in the 1999 World Cup. It is hoped that becoming involved will further Scotland’s aims to become the 13th full member of the ICC. Linked to these plans, Scotland hope to build a high-performance centre that hosts internationals. “It would help to demonstrate to the ICC how serious we are to become a full member,” Mackay said.

Warren Deutrom, the chief executive of Cricket Ireland, said: “We have submitted an expression of interest to the ICC for co-hosting in the next cycle.” Ireland would be expected to share matches with Scotland or England.

Cricket Scotland has cancelled all international fixtures for this summer bar the Twenty20 international against Australia, which could potentially be rearranged depending on whether Australia’s tour to England – now mooted for September – goes ahead.

Cricket Scotland hopes it can organise several limited-overs games against full members next year, but is facing a loss of £250,000 from the cancellation of matches this summer.

Cricket Ireland has forecast an estimated 30 per cent drop in revenue.

Ireland still have the prospect of facing England in three one-day internationals in the new Cricket World Cup Super League. The games were originally scheduled for September, but England are now looking at playing

them towards the end of July. If the series goes ahead, Ireland are discussing what warm-up matches they could play, with the likelihood of inter-squad games – as the West Indies are planning – either in England or Ireland. “The opportunity is for us potentially to look at something domestically, but only if we’re going to be able to get access to a venue,” Deutrom said.

Ireland hope to have a six-eightweek lead-in period, meaning that they would need players to be returning to training within the next three weeks or so.

Cricket Ireland’s financial situation – perilous even before Covid-19, leading to the cancellation of a Test against Bangladesh – is likely to make it harder for them to play Tests in future.