England are playing 10 ODIs this summer

[YorksLanka]

If anything, matches against Ireland are even more important.

no, with due respect to Ireland, they are far more important to Ireland than they are for England, that's why England are using the game as a game to blood new young players,(as well as letting Morgan go to the IPL)

 

[harsh.ag]

Yeah, but they are important from a larger future-well-being-of-cricket-as-a-world-sport perspective.

And while it's true that the English are worthless ****s at the moment, Ireland dropping 4 points for losing to them is stupid.

 

[GotSpin]

no, with due respect to Ireland, they are far more important to Ireland than they are for England, that's why England are using the game as a game to blood new young players,(as well as letting Morgan go to the IPL)

Its still giving Ireland an international match though

 

[TheJediBrah]

Ireland need and deserve at least a few 3-match series a year. Unfortunate that the only way it seems that would happen is some generous charity from ICC or other nations.

 

[wpdavid]

They did. In the 2000s and maybe late 90s? It was called the NatWest series. I only really remember when Aus toured but in 2001 it was Aus/Eng/Pak and in 2005 it was Aus/Eng/Bangladesh.

Yeah, England were slaughtered in 2001 by the very good Aus & Pakistan sides. But I think we won it in 2000 (vs WI & Zim), lost a terrific final to India in 2002 (SL missed out) and might even have won it in 2003, against SA and a rather weaker Zim side than 3 years previously. They were good tournaments actually. As you say, it definitely happened in 2005 but that might have been the end of it, which was a shame. It was way preferable to what's been planned for this year, for sure.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Well that is 10 days of cricket I may well miss, if I am doing nothing I may take a look but won't go out of my way to watch it if I have something else to do.

 

[Cabinet96]

Honestly, there's effectively 10 tests this season, equating to about 50 days of cricket, and 10 ODIs. If anything the number of ODIs in proportion to tests should increase, but we had that last year with the one day leg of the Windies tour.

 

[BigBrother]

Should be a quadrangular series with England, the two touring sides and a rotation between Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands for the 4th spot.

I like the idea of 3 top teams and a minnow, which means include Ban or ZIm along with the associates too. I'm of the opinion that a side like WI would benefit from it these days as well.