Ireland, Scotland to go Dutch in new T20 tri-series
Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands are to contest an annual tri-series T20 tournament with the first edition to be held in the Netherlands in June, it was announced on Tuesday. Scotland are the highest ranked of the three countries at present, 11th in the International Cricket Council's rankings. The inaugural edition will be played out from June 12-20, with all three sides facing each other twice in double headers to be held in Rotterdam, Deventer and Amstelveen. "We always have hard-fought games against both Ireland and Netherlands and we are grateful to our Dutch neighbours for hosting this exciting event in this format," said Scotland head coach Grant Bradburn. His Ireland counterpart Graham Ford said the series would serve his team well for the more testing challenge of hosting India in two T20s on June 27 and June 29. "T20 cricket is such an enjoyable, intriguing and unpredictable product, and a series between these three very evenly matched teams promises to be extremely exciting," said Ford, who took up the post last September from Kiwi John Bracewell. "It is also an ideal opportunity for the Irish lads to sharpen their T20 skills ahead of the two international T20s against India in late June," added the 57-year-old South African, who previously coached Sri Lanka.
