Paul Stirling has expressed his excitement at the news that one of Ireland’s warm-up games ahead of the T20 World Cup will be held at the world famous Melbourne Cricket Ground.

The ICC announced the full programme of official warm-up games for all 16 teams yesterday and Ireland will face Namibia under the MCG lights on Tuesday October 11 followed by a game against Sri Lanka at the Junction Oval, also in Melbourne, two days later.

The Namibia game will be the first by an Ireland team at the second biggest ground in the world – it has hosted more than 90,000 people at Ashes Test matches – and Stirling, for one, can’t wait.

“I usually don’t take too much notice of warm-up games but the one at the MCG I’m pretty interested in,” said the Ireland vice-captain. “It could be my last chance to play there.

“I don’t normally hold warm-up games in decent regard but if you have the chance to play a game there, even if it is a warm-up game it will be nice.”

Ireland skipper Andrew Balbirnie also echoed his thoughts, describing the ground as “iconic”.
He said: “It will be a great chance for us to play at one of the most iconic grounds in world cricket. It’s always nice to play in Australia and we are very much looking forward to getting out there.”

With the warm-up games not involving teams in the same first round group – Ireland play Zimbabwe, Scotland and West Indies – the only teams they could play were UAE, Netherlands, Sri Lanka and Namibia.

The last three named were their opponents at last year’s T20 World Cup in the UAE and the fixture schedule has paired Ireland with the two teams they lost to in that tournament.

Sri Lanka bowled out Ireland for 101, for a 70 runs victory and Namibia then knocked out Balbirnie’s side with an eight wickets victory in their final game, condemning them to a place in the first stage of this year’s event.

However, Balbirnie insists there will be no thought of revenge when Ireland take on Namibia next month, six days out from their opening game against Zimbabwe in Hobart.

“We wouldn’t really be looking at it like that,” he said. “Warm-up games are mainly to make sure we hit the ground running once the competition starts. We will want to make sure we have a fully firing squad once the first game comes around.
“Sri Lanka are obviously a team in good form at the moment so that game will give us a good sense of how we are going. But, again, testing ourselves against a quality team before the competition starts will only be beneficial.”

The 15-man squad for the World Cup is due to be selected next weekend after the last of the inter-squad games which are taking place in Belfast this week and in Malahide next week.

Meanwhile, heavy rain yesterday washed out play in the third Women’s T20 international between Ireland Women and Scotland in Edinburgh – Ireland won the series 2-0 – and in Arundel where the three-day game between Ireland Academy and Free Foresters ended in a draw.