Laura Jolly / Cricket.com.au
Image: Cricket.com.au
The T20 world champs will head to a small village in Northern Ireland for a series of warm-up matches ahead of groundbreaking Commonwealth Games competition.
Australia’s mission to win Commonwealth Games gold will begin with a T20I tri-series in Northern Ireland next July.
Australia will play both Ireland and Pakistan twice across nine days in the small village of Bready in Northern Ireland in preparation for the debut of Women’s T20 Cricket at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
It will be the first time the world’s top-ranked team have played in Ireland since a three-match T20I series that was staged during the 2015 Ashes, and coach Matthew Mott hailed it as the “perfect preparation”.
“It’s been in the pipeline for a while and we’ve got some great memories from Ireland from previous trips,” said Mott, who was an assistant coach with Ireland’s men during the 2015 ODI World Cup.
“I think it’s great for world cricket to get that going and also against Pakistan, that’s pretty special.
“I think as the number one team I think we’ve got a duty to get around the global game.
“It’s the perfect lead in, I think, to the Commonwealth Games with some T20 cricket … we’re very excited to be going over there.”
Bready Cricket Club has previously hosted a men’s ODI between Ireland and Zimbabwe in 2015, and men’s T20Is against Scotland (2015) and Zimbabwe (2021).
T20 cricket’s debut at Birmingham 2022 begins on July 29 and culminates in the final on August 7, with all games to be played at Edgbaston.
Australia have been grouped with India, Pakistan and Barbados for the tournament, while England, New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka make up the other group.
Meanwhile, Ireland will be part of the next edition of the ICC Women’s ODI Championship, after the round-robin one-day tournament was expanded to 10 teams for the 2022-2025 edition.
The schedule for the Championship, which provides structure to the women’s touring program in between ODI World Cups, has yet to be publicly revealed, but it is likely Australia and Ireland will meet in their first one-day series since 2005 during that period.
Cricket Ireland unveiled its women’s international schedule on Thursday while also announcing its first-ever full-time professional contracts for female players.
Seven players have been handed the full-time contracts – including Australian-born Celeste Raack, who moved to Ireland in 2018 – alongside nine part-time and four non-retainer contracts.
Ireland will host South Africa’s women in three ODIs and three T20Is in Pembroke and Clontarf in June, before the Proteas’ tour of England.
Ireland T20I tri-series
July 16: Australia v Pakistan, Bready Cricket Club
July 17: Ireland v Australia, Bready Cricket Club
July 19: Ireland v Pakistan, Bready Cricket Club
July 21: Ireland v Australia, Bready Cricket Club
July 23: Pakistan v Australia, Bready Cricket Club
July 24: Ireland v Pakistan, Bready Cricket Club
