Cricket South Africa Confirms Tour To Ireland For Limited-Overs Series In July 2021

Cricket South Africa(CSA) on Monday confirmed that the Proteas will be touring Ireland in a historic full limited-overs series for the first time in July 2021. The matches will be played from July 11 -25 starting from three one day internationals that will be part of ICC’s Cricket World Cup Super League (CWCSL) and followed by three T20 internationals.

This will mark the first instance of South Africa touring Ireland for more than one game. The proteas’ only visit to Ireland came in 2007 for a one-day international in Belfast which makes the upcoming series a lot more historic for the host nation. The venues for the first three one-day internationals and the first T20 will be Malahide while the remaining two T20 games will be held in Stormont.

Cricket South Africa Thanks Cricket Ireland For Their Cooperation

The Director of Cricket South Africa, Graeme Smith was extremely delighted with the tour dates getting confirmed very quickly and credited Cricket Ireland for cooperating to finalize the schedule. Graeme Smith also mentioned the rise of Ireland in the cricketing world through prolific performances and told that the proteas will be looking forward to playing international matches in unfamiliar conditions.

“We are extremely pleased to have finalised the dates as quickly as we have and for that we would like to thank Cricket Ireland for their cooperation and willingness to adapt the tour schedule as we continue to finalize our winter programme,” commented Cricket South Africa Director of Cricket, Graeme Smith.

“The tour marks a significant new chapter in our history as we visit one of the fast-developing cricket nations for a six-match tour. Ireland have showed themselves to be highly competitive adversaries in recent years, with growing profile in the world game. It will also offer our players further international action in unfamiliar conditions, so we are looking forward to the contest,” he added.

We Welcome Back South Africa – Chief Executive of Cricket Ireland

Warren Deutrom, Chief Executive of Cricket Ireland commented on the tough times that the countries have been going through to reschedule the home series over the period 2020-2023 and compared it to a jigsaw puzzle to fix the matches. He was happy that his side will be playing six world cup league matches in the series and welcomed South Africa to their nation after 14 years.

“Given the significant changes to the Future Tours Programme due to the postponement of home series’ from 2020 – and all other countries having to reschedule fixtures over the period 2020-2023 – it has truly been a jigsaw puzzle for world cricket administrators to try to make the pieces fit,” Warren Deutrom, Chief Executive of Cricket Ireland said.

“We look forward to the season ahead and thank our touring opponents for working with us on this restructured season. For our senior men, there are six World Cup Super League matches included in the schedule, in which we welcome back South Africa who last played here 14 years ago,” he added.

The two teams have met only five times before and it has been one-way traffic in the direction of South Africa all over the years.