Euro T20 Slam to be postponed until 2020

Organisers of the Euro T20 Slam, the world’s first multinational T20 franchise tournament, have today confirmed the inaugural staging of the event will be postponed until 2020. The T20 extravaganza was scheduled to get underway on August 30 and enthral one and all, but that won’t be the case at least for the time being there will be a wait for around a year for the excitement.

The league was set to be played with six participating teams, representing Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Belfast, Dublin, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Amstelveen was scheduled to host the first round of matches, following which the tournament would’ve moved to Edinburgh followed by Dublin.

A number of massive names from the cricketing fraternity- Dale Steyn, Brendon McCullum, Rashid Khan, 2019 World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan, Corey Anderson, Sikandar Raza, Colin Ingram Shahid Afridi and Kane Williamson were picked up in the drafts held last month in London.

We are deeply disappointed with the decision, CEO Cricket Ireland

“The Board of the Euro T20 Slam, funding partners and franchise owners of this exciting new T20 tournament have reluctantly come to the decision that staging of the event will not be possible in 2019,” Prashant Mishra, speaking on behalf of the Board of the Euro T20 Slam, was quoted as saying in a media release.

“We are deeply disappointed with the decision, however, fully empathise with the rationale that has led to the tournament’s postponement. The excitement and energy that the Euro T20 Slam had generated since it was announced has demonstrated a high level of interest amongst the Irish public in seeing world-class cricket hosted here in Ireland.

We hope that the interest will carry on until 2020 when the Slam will finally get underway,” Warren Deutrom, Chief Executive of Cricket Ireland, mentioned.

We believe that it is the right one, CEO Cricket Scotland

The Slam suffered a major blow when Brendon McCullum announced his retirement from all forms of cricket after the conclusion of the Global T20 Canada at Brampton, Ontario. The exact reasons behind the postponement of the league hasn’t been known just yet.

But the failure of the launch means that a gap is left in the schedules of Ireland, Scotland, Netherlands as they prepare for the T20 World Cup qualifier to be held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in October.

“While this was a very difficult decision to make at this late stage, we believe that it is the right one and one which leaves us with a great opportunity to launch the Euro T20 Slam next year with its deserved noise level,” Malcolm Cannon, Chief Executive of Cricket Scotland, said.