Bangladesh to play T20 series in Ireland

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Ireland will host Bangladesh for three Twenty20 internationals in July, Cricket Ireland has confirmed.

The teams had initially planned on playing an ODI series in Ireland but the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) requested a Twenty20 series instead, in order to prepare for the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka later in the year. The nine-day tour of Ireland will also include a practice game.

"It's great news that we're taking on Bangladesh and the games will give us valuable preparation as we build towards the World Cup in Sri Lanka," Ireland coach Phil Simmons said. "We played an exciting brand of cricket in winning the recent qualifying tournament in Dubai and we're now eighth in the world rankings in this format of the game."

"We are delighted to be able to bring more top quality cricket to Ireland. Hosting matches against the Full-Member countries is exactly what we are striving for and this summer proves we are on the right track with matches against Australia, South Africa A, Afghanistan and now Bangladesh," Warren Deutrom, Cricket Ireland's CEO, said. "I would also like to extend our sincere thanks to the ICC High Performance Programme and to ICC Europe for their financial support in helping make these matches come to fruition.

"In addition, this is the first time ever we are playing T20I matches at home against a Test nation, and we fully intend to play the games at a time and a price to suit the post-work and weekend crowd."

The teams have faced each other just once in a T20I, at Trent Bridge in the 2009 ICC World Twenty20. All three matches this series will be held in Stormont, on July 18, 20 and 21. The warm-up game against an Ireland XI will be held on July 16.

Ireland, last month, had submitted a proposal to the ICC, seeking to play 12 to 15 ODIs a year to recognise their rising standards.

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