The International Cricket Council (ICC) has been criticised by Warren Deutrom as the Cricket Ireland chief executive announced the decision to scrap next year's Test match against Bangladesh.
The match against the Asian nation would have been just the second Test ever to be played on these shores but has been converted to a T20 international with the Irish governing body under some financial pressure.
The cost of staging a Test is estimated at around €1m and Deutrom admits that the move up from Associate Member to Full Member status has not been an easy one.
"We were proud to become world cricket's 11th Test playing nation and have a long-term commitment to that format of the game," said Deutrom.
"Both fans and players alike have enjoyed the spectacle of Ireland competing in the Test arena, however, we have been very careful in our approach to Test cricket and understand that it is a long-term proposition to build up a competitive side in the long game, and will require significant investment in permanent infrastructure before we can make regular Test cricket financially sustainable.
"We have additionally been very open about the financial and resource constraints that we operate within, and especially a number of financial headwinds that we have faced as we transition from an Associate Member to the operations required of a Full Member."
Deutrom went on to highlight the lack of financial support from the sport's world governing body.
"The ICC has been supportive in giving us this opportunity, but the reality to date has been Cricket Ireland dealing with significant financial challenges," said Deutrom.
"The costs associated with delivering to Full Membership standards and fulfilling a much greater number of international fixtures each year has not been matched by expected revenues and a number of key unforeseen financial blows.
"With an allocation amounting to less than half of that of Zimbabwe, our expected revenues from the ICC Funding Model for Full Members have not been realised.
"Although we generate a higher percentage of our own income outside of ICC funding than a number of more established nations, the fact is that it is insufficient to help us transition smoothly to our current status."
Deutrom also explains how the ICC's lack of support doesn't only affect the elite level of the sport in Ireland and that it also looks like they will be left in limbo for another four years.
"This has been a great disappointment to us as we had hoped to have had an injection of new money into the sport from Full Membership that would have not only helped fulfil fixtures, but invest in infrastructure and the grassroots game across Ireland.
"We have been told that this expected shortfall is set to continue until 2023 when a new ICC Funding Model will be developed that will hopefully provide a greater share of the overall allocation, although, of course, that is still subject to discussion among all the members."
"In addition, while the day-to-day running of cricket goes on, we have also been hampered by the revenue shortfall from the postponement by 12 months of the Euro T20 Slam, an international broadcast partner falling over, the high costs of insurance of international games held at home and the ongoing challenge of high temporary infrastructure costs given the lack of a permanent cricket stadium in Ireland.
"2020 will also see one of our four internationally-accredited grounds out of commission with Clontarf undertaking major renovations that have put a strain on our match allocation process next year.
"As a result of all of this, the Board has had to make some tough decisions on the fixtures and ground allocations to ensure we can fulfil as much of the home programme as possible.
As well as the limited-overs matches against Bangladesh and New Zealand in early summer, Ireland will also host Pakistan for two T20Is ahead of their tour of England.
However, the proposed visit of Afghanistan has been cancelled.
"The first area of prioritisation for 2020 has been white ball cricket over red ball," added Deutrom.
"Like all Irish cricket fans, we would love nothing more than to be competing on all three fronts - Tests, ODIs and T20Is. Unfortunately, our financial constraints have led us to cut the home Test match next year.
"As the Test does not form part of the World Test Championship, the one-off match lacks context. For effectively a "friendly", the expected costs for hosting the Test would be over €1 million, with little expectation of creating revenue streams to cover the costs of hosting.
"Those tough decisions also include having to prioritise some white-ball cricket over others. With Bangladesh and NZ coming over for important ODIs, it makes sense to extend their tours with complementary T20Is.
"Similarly, Pakistan are the number one T20I team in the world and have proven popular visitors here over the years.
"However, we have notified the Afghanistan Cricket Board that we shall not be in a position to host them for the 5 planned T20Is in 2020. We have been regular and frequent opponents of the Afghans every year for a long time now, and we shall be again in future."
"However, needs must at this juncture to ensure we are operating as a responsible governing body operating within our means."
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