The three countries of Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands which envisaged the Euro T20 Slam to being the lesser popular cricketing nations on the global T20 franchise league system’s foot map, met on Thursday, June 24 to once again postpone the starting of the league from 2021 to 2022.
Earlier scheduled to start in 2020 itself, the tournament was pushed to September 2021 due to the ongoing pandemic at that time. Now with a new delta variant of the Covid-19 doting the map of the United Kingdom and the Indian Premier League barging into the September window, the league’s board decided to postpone it.
“You only have to look at the impacts of the evolving pandemic on established competitions like the IPL and PSL, to see the complexity and uncertainty that still needs to be managed,” said Warren Deutrom, Chief Executive of Cricket Ireland.
The tournament, originally to be hosted in the three countries between six teams, two from each, was shifted to just one country of Ireland for better administration due to Covid-19 difficulties.
“While the vaccine roll-out has provided hope on the horizon, a combination of new variants, accommodation shortages in Ireland, and – possibly the most crucial element – the rescheduling of the IPL into the window envisaged to play the Euro T20 Slam – mean that the viability of getting a new event established in 2021 will not be possible,” Deutrom added.
With the T20 World Cup coming, the three cricket boards are now considering a tri-series involving all of them to act as a preparation for the tournament.