Cricket: Ireland will face Kiwis and Scots in triangular mission

Other Sports

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

By Ian Callender

Ireland will play a triangular series against New Zealand and Scotland as one of the highlight's of next summer's international programme.

The three-match series - the teams will play each other once - will take place in Scotland from July 1-3 and the clash against the Kiwis could be Ireland's second one-day international against a Test nation.

The Irish Cricket Union are still hoping to get onto the South Africa fixture list, in what would be a return visit to Ireland for the Proteas who played India in a three-match series at Stormont this summer.

The Proteas, who will be on their English tour in the first half of next summer, could be back in Ireland in June.

Those fixtures are likely to be confirmed at the same time as the dates of Ireland's eight games in the new regionalised Friends Provident Trophy campaign which will take place in April and May.

Ireland will have four games at home and four away against Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Niall O'Brien's Northamtonshire.

It has also been confirmed that Ireland will host the European Championships next summer, probably in Dublin.

The tournament, which Ireland won in Scotland last year, has been expanded to seven days and six teams with Scotland, the Netherlands and Denmark being joined by Norway and Italy. The round-robin tournament will take place from July 25-31 with the games against the Scots and Dutch full ODIs.

The Under-17 championships, which next year will also include Jersey and Guernsey, will also be hosted by Ireland, from July 14-18.

Either side of the senior European Championships, the second half of next summer will be dominated by Ireland's defence of the Inter-Continental Cup.

Ireland will be in action in Holland on July 9-12 before hosting the UAE the following week, July 16-19. The Canadians will also play their four-day game in Ireland on August 13-16.

There is also the possibility of at least one more ODI, against Kenya in August, after the Africans have played their Inter-Continental Cup ties in Scotland and Holland. The venues for the other youth age European Championships have also been confirmed. The Under-19s will be in Scotland (August 5-7) and the Under-15s, also involving the Channel Island teams, will take place in Jersey (August 4-7).