Cricket Ireland (CI) is reportedly in talks with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) over a prospective Indian men’s tour of the European country in 2026.
India are scheduled to tour England for five T20Is and three ODIs from July 1-19 next year. According to ESPNcricinfo, CI is aiming to secure a series at their home before that. If it materialises, it’ll be India’s only fourth tour of Ireland (after T20I series in 2018, 2022 and 2023), which were quite popular in Malahide.
CI has been bogged down by a serious lack of international cricket in 2025. Ireland hosted the West Indies earlier in the summer, but only three of the six matches saw action, with the other three being washed out due to rain. A tour of Afghanistan was canceled
due to financial constraints, while a planned European T20 Premier League (ETPL) was again postponed.
They are currently involved in a three-T20I series against England, where the second game was washed out, too. Before the rubber began, Paul Stirling had complained how his team was ‘underprepared’ and despondent by the lack of playing time.
After the washout, Brian MacNeice, CI’s chair, met with players and staff to address their concerns.
“I opened the meeting by saying, as far as I’m concerned, the quantum of cricket that we’re playing in ’25 isn’t good enough to prepare you guys to play international cricket and to be competitive at ICC tournaments,” MacNeice said, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo. “I’m not hiding from that,” he added.
“We mapped out our views and thoughts on what the schedule for ’26 and ’27 looks like, and I wanted to get their input not just on the international schedule, but also the domestic schedule… It was a really positive session yesterday. There’s more work to be done, honestly, but it was a good session,” he said.
“[The players] understand the challenges that we’re facing and some of the reasons why we had what we had, but they also are very clear about what we’re trying to achieve. I think they’re fully bought into that,” MacNeice added.
Ireland don’t earn as much broadcast revenue from media rights as more popular teams, which makes development and attracting the best sides difficult. It becomes a vicious cycle.
An Indian tour, considering the sheer size of the audience ready to watch cricket in the sub-continent, is often seen as a silver bullet and would be a major win for CI, even if the visitors rest and rotate their best players.
