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Ireland learns European Cricket Championship draw in Spain

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DUBLIN – Cricket Ireland will once again be sending a development squad to the 2023 European Cricket Championships in Spain this October as part of the pan-European competition. The tournament is the ‘national’ competition operated by the same team that ran the European Cricket League – a club cup competition which Belfast’s CIYMS competed in earlier this year.

This year the quick-fire 10-over competition will feature 30 teams from a range of countries including: Ireland, England, Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Belgium, France, Italy, Greece, and Scotland. Teams will be placed into six groups of five teams, with the Netherlands XI receiving automatic qualification for finals week as reigning champions, having beaten an England XI by four wickets in 2022.

Following the draw held recently, Ireland have been placed in Group D, alongside Austria, Hungary, Finland, and Turkey, with the fixtures taking place from 5-7 October 2023 at Cartama Oval in Spain.

The competition will see group matches played over the first two days in a round-robin format – the top four in the group move on to an eliminator, second eliminator and final on the third day. The winner of the Group Final moves onto Finals Week, which will be held from 16-20 October 2023 at the same venue.

In 2022, an Ireland Development XI was knocked out by Spain in their Group Final. Seamus Lynch was the top run-scorer for Ireland with 289 runs, while recent Test debutant Matthew Humphreys was the top wicket-taker for Ireland with 14 wickets from their ten matches.

The Ireland Development XI squad for the tournament will be named in due course.

More information on the tournament can be found here.