Ireland, Netherlands and Scotland to contest tri-series in September

The teams will play each other twice, with fans to be granted free entry to all six games at Malahide Cricket Club.

The series has been organised after the inaugural edition of the Euro T20 Slam, which would have featured players from the three countries, was postponed to 2020.

“It is no secret that one of the principal rationales for the establishment of the Euro T20 Slam was to make us a stronger nation in the T20 format that we’ll be playing so much of in years to come,” said Warren Deutrom, chief executive of Cricket Ireland.

“Therefore, the postponement of the Slam and the opportunity for our players to mix with the world’s best not only put that on hold for another year, it robbed us of the chance to prepare properly for the T20 World Cup Qualifier in October and put ourselves back on the world stage in Australia next year.

“So, it goes without saying that we are delighted to host this T20 International series – so that each of the participating nations heading to the qualifier can get some competitive T20s under the belt.

“As both a goodwill gesture and a demonstration of their commitment to the Slam starting next year, the organisers of the Slam have agreed to support the operations of this new series.”

Malcolm Cannon, chief executive of Cricket Scotland added: “We are looking forward with some excitement to some high quality T20 international matches against our old rivals Ireland and Netherlands. It is imperative that we get as much game time under our belt as possible ahead of the T20 World Cup qualifier in UAE later in the year, and we know we will always have a fiercely competitive challenge against these two nations.”

The series will begin on 15 September and finish on the 20th.