LONDON: The inaugural Euro T20 Slam, a Twenty20 franchise tournament with six teams from Scotland, Netherlands and Ireland, has been postponed until 2020, the organisers said.
The cricket boards of Scotland, the Netherlands and Ireland had agreed in March to form a new European league, developed in consultation with the International Cricket Council (ICC), to be held from Aug. 30 to Sept. 22.
The organisers did not provide a detailed explanation for the decision, citing “unforeseen circumstances”.
“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,” board member Prashant Mishra said in a statement.
“We believe the right course of action is to postpone the Slam to a further date. This will give us the necessary breathing space to ensure we are ready to go.
“We will work with the three cricket boards, our principal investors, the franchise owners, players and other stakeholders within the game to ensure we fulfil any commitments we have made to the extent possible.”
The tournament schedule had already been released. Six city-based franchise teams, two from each country, were set to play 30 group-stage matches followed by semi-finals and a final in Dublin.
GS Holding Inc and Woods Entertainment were to deliver the tournament under an initial 10-year agreement, with the matches set to be broadcast in global markets.
