DUBLIN – 2024 will be a busy summer of cricket across Ireland with the return of Test cricket to Irish shores, six senior international sides to play Ireland Men and Ireland Women, a major emerging talent series against a touring West Indies Academy side, the first first-class cricket match in five years to be played in Ireland and a busy programme of representative domestic men’s and women’s cricket.
The last elements of the full fixture schedule were approved at the Cricket Ireland Board Meeting last week.
* NB: tickets will go on sale shortly for international matches.
The action at senior international level will be complemented by fixtures for international talent pathway squads, including:
Warren Deutrom, Chief Executive Officer of Cricket Ireland,said about the fixture programme:
Irish cricket fans are in for a treat in 2024 with more than 40 days of senior international cricket to enjoy between April and October – potentially more if our Women can qualify for this year’s T20 World Cup. It’s fantastic to see the demand for international cricket remains strong – the three men’s T20 Internationals against Pakistan sold out in a matter of days and we have had intense interest in further fixture announcements.
“I’m sure many fans will undoubtedly be looking forward to the return of Test cricket to Ireland. We will be creating a little piece of history by staging the first-ever Test in Belfast, and making Stormont the 123rd cricket ground around the world to host men’s Test cricket. We look forward to seeing fans coming along to support the men’s Test squad as they seek to follow up on the terrific inaugural Test win over Afghanistan in March.
About the development of this year’s fixture programme, he said:
Fans have a programme of great international, pathway and domestic cricket to enjoy this Summer. This fixture schedule attempts to strike a balance of competitive, high quality cricket across multiple formats whilst addressing the challenges we face with respect to our current infrastructure constraints.
While we work on longer-term solutions for some of these challenges – most notably continuing to advocate to Government for the proposed permanent stadium – we know we’ll have to explore ways to creatively increase our capacity to host an ever-increasing schedule in the short term. Continually reviewing how best to optimise our hosting arrangements for cricket in Ireland and playing a few of our home matches in neutral venues overseas is something we must continue to explore, as we have done with the South Africa series this year.
2024 offers a great array of fixtures for fans of both men’s and women’s cricket. And with the historic nature of the Belfast Test, the possibility of seeing Irish sides in two T20 World Cups, and some of the world’s best sides touring, it should be an unmissable season of Irish cricket.
NB: Match start times listed where currently confirmed; all times are local to the venue
Ireland Men
Pakistan series
Tri-Series
T20 World Cup – First Group stage
Zimbabwe Test
South Africa series
Ireland Women
Thailand series
ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Global Qualifier
Sri Lanka Series
England series
* Matches are part of the ICC Women’s Championship
If Ireland Women qualify, they will then play:
ICC Women’s T20 World Cup
Pathway Series
Emerging Ireland v West Indies Academy
Cricket Ireland will make further announcements about the summer programme over the next week.
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