No home comforts for Irish cricket 

THE ‘sold out’ signs went up during the week for today’s third ODI between Ireland and West Indies at Castle Avenue.

A comprehensive Ireland win on Wednesday, balanced by a world record display by Matt Forde has set up an epic decider for the series.

It’s also the last chance for the Leinster public – always the biggest supporters of the team – to see Ireland in action until a trio of T20s against England in mid-September, when thermals will be required. Following the summers of 2023 (two T20s in Dublin) and 2024 (three) the capital’s supporters have been seriously short-changed.

Not that they have been neglected in favour of other regions – Belfast has just had the one Test since August 2022, and no games this year. And the West Indies visit to Bready from June 12-15 for a trio of T20s, the first internationals in the North-West for four years.

As a way of ‘making cricket mainstream’ as the CI slogan goes, it is pretty dismal.

It’s partly the fault of the European T20 Premier League, Cricket Ireland’s attempt to replicate the successful franchise leagues around the world but which has yet to get off the ground.

Rumours have been rife for weeks that it will be cancelled, but there is still not a peep from the organisers or Cricket Ireland, even though the CI board was told last week that it would leave a €700,000 hole in its budget for 2025.

The saga kicked off in 2019 with plans for a six-team Euro T20 Slam, with games in Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands. The plug was pulled at two weeks’ notice. Each year since the Slam raises its head only to disappear once high summer arrives.

In March, Bollywood star Abhishek Bachchan came to Dublin to promote the event, promising to ‘bring world-class entertainment to fans’. As of now, the only world class entertainers likely to appear in Malahide this summer are Neil Young, Justin Timberlake, and Alanis Morissette.

The ground will lie empty – club fixtures were cancelled from July 15 to August 3 – and the Irish players can now take a rare summer holiday, if they can afford it having had a hole blown in their own income.

So today represents the best chance of watching sun-kissed cricket in Dublin this summer. Catch it while you can.