Cricket: Ireland set for trio of one-days in Bangladesh

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Tuesday, January 15, 2008

The Irish Cricket Union are on the verge of confirming three one-day internationals with Bangladesh, the second of the Test nation they beat in last year's World Cup.

The games are pencilled in for March 20, 22 and 24 and will come at the end of a three-week tour which will start in the United Arab Emirates where Ireland will play the third match in their Inter-Continental Cup defence.

That game was provisionally arranged for the middle of the month but is now set to be brought forward to March 7-10.

The squad will then fly direct to Dhaka where they will play a four-day game against Bangladesh A and then a couple of one-day warm-ups ahead of the first ODIs of the year.

The games in Bangladesh will give Ireland their first opportunity to close the gap on the opponents who are directly above them in ninth place in the ICC ODI world rankings.

The Tigers have just ended a humiliating tour of New Zealand where they lost all three ODIs and both Test matches.

The Ireland squad had their first practice session of the winter last weekend and the northern members of the squad will meet again at Queen's this Saturday ahead of another session in Dublin the following day.

ICU chief executive Warren Deutrom will meet face to face with the chairmen of the four counties who have Ireland internationals on their books in an effort to assure their availability for next summer's busy programme of fixtures.

Boyd Rankin at Warwickshire, Niall O'Brien (Northamptonshire), Eoin Morgan (Middlesex) and William Porterfield (Gloucestershire) are all on professional contracts and with eight ODIs and two Inter-Continental Cup games in July and August, clashing with county fixtures, Deutrom is keen to avoid the confusion which curtailed the players' availability for their country last summer.

The Ireland Under 19s, meanwhile, will leave for their World Cup finals in Malaysia on February 4. Thanks to extra money from the European Cricket Council - an acknowledgement that they are the only Associate team from Europe - they are able to travel to Malaysia via Mumbai where they will have a week's acclimatisation and practice facilities.