Funding Grounds The Lady Cricketers As They Cancel Their Ireland Tour

News reaching us says the Zimbabwe Women Cricket team failed to make it to Ireland for a one day T20 series double-header with the men’s side who are currently in Ireland.

The Cricket Ireland (CI) chief executive Warren Deutrom was quoted by ESPN saying:

We received correspondence late this afternoon from Zimbabwe Cricket in which we were informed that due to a funding issue, Zimbabwe Cricket will not be sending their women’s team to Ireland.

With the team due to arrive on Sunday, there is clearly no time to find an alternative and, after urgent consultation with the ICC to seek clarification, we regret to confirm the women’s tour has been cancelled. This will not, however, impact upon the men’s tour which will proceed as scheduled

The cancelled T20 series was aimed at providing much-needed preparation for the upcoming ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier. Funding problems are not the only problem being faced by ZC. A few days ago SRC suspended the entire ZC board and put a new interim board in its place.