The ICC has announced that the final of the Intercontinental Cup between Canada and Ireland will be held at Grace Road, Leicester between May 22 and 25.
The County Ground at Chelmsford had originally been earmarked to stage the game, but negotiations between Essex and the ICC broke down earlier in the month.
I'd like to see the ICC do some marketing around this event. Ireland were the surprise package (very competitive) of CWC2007, and Canada didn't embarrass themselves even though they lost all 3 group games. The 4 day ICC Intercontinental Cup promises to be (once again) an exciting competitive match.
If the planned Windies May-June tour to England is about to implode (because of fighting between the WICB and the WIPA) perhaps something can be hung around this ICC 4 day fixture. I'm thinking about a round-robin involving Canada, Ireland, Scotland and England "A". With some full ODIs at the end to replace the 20/20 and ODIs for Windies and England.
All of this what-if presumes for now that the up in the air tour (scheduled to start vs Somerset in 3 weeks) blows away on the wind. I for one wouldn't mind seeing the ICC (and the ECB) cashing in on "Ireland fever".
Come to think of it, it also wouldn't hurt for the ECB to be seen to be offering a helping hand to the Irish and Scots cricket unions as they struggle to find a way to get over the hump from being just another associate to teams that can routinely take on the big boys and provide a serious fight.
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