Euro T20 Slam Postponed Until 2020
The Euro T20 Slam, co-hosted by Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands, has been postponed until next year, just weeks before the inaugural tournament was supposed to start.
Organisers have pulled the competition stating the need for “the necessary breathing space” in order to launch in 2020 instead.
Prashant Mishra, speaking on behalf of the Board of the Euro T20 Slam, said: “We want to ensure that the inaugural staging of the Euro T20 Slam provides the best springboard to making this a truly flagship event on the global cricket calendar. As such, we believe the right course of action is to postpone the Slam to a further date. This will give us the necessary breathing space to ensure we are ready to go.”
The Euro T20 Slam was initially scheduled to run from 30th August to 22nd September 2019 and was due to feature ‘marquee players’ such as Eoin Morgan, Martin Guptill and Mohammad Amir.
Each of the three host nations are to provide two teams each to make up a six-team league representing the cities of Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Two semi-finals and a final taking place in Malahide, Dublin were scheduled to bring the competition to an end in September.
Malcolm Cannon, CEO, Cricket Scotland, said: “While this was a very difficult decision to make at this late stage, we believe that it is the right one.”
Warren Deutrom, CEO of Cricket Ireland expressed his disappointment at the decision, though claimed that he “fully empathise(d) with the rationale that has led to the tournament’s postponement.” Similarly, Cricket Scotland’s CEO Malcolm Cannon claimed that “while this was a very difficult decision to make at this late stage, we believe that it is the right one.”
