MCC Women to visit Ireland for white-ball series in July

The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) Women's team will visit Ireland for a two-match white-ball series in July. They will take on against Ireland Women's Select XI and Leinster President's XI with Irish players featuring on both sides of the contest. Up to three Irish players are expected to feature in the MCC squad. 

"MCC Ireland have had men's tours for a long time, and so it felt that now was the right time to request a women's tour with the national side in the ICC Women's Championship," Ed Joyce, Head Coach of Ireland Women, told Lord's official website. 

"We are grateful to everyone at MCC Ireland, Cricket Leinster, and the MCC itself for making this tour happen," he added. "These games are set to be more high-quality fixtures for some of our players - the more games and experiences like this our players have, the better. We'll select the Ireland Women's Select XI squad closer to the time. Still, the squad will likely feature a mixture of players from the senior performance squad and our younger development squad."

He further opined how more quality games could be better for the squad. "I would certainly love if this tour could become a regular feature of the calendar. As I said before, the more quality games we get for our High-Performance squads annually, the better, in my opinion. Hopefully, we could make it a longer trip in future!"

"The MCC Women's section is very excited by this opportunity to play an Irish side this year – and we hope to welcome three Irish players into our ranks for these matches. Women's cricket in Ireland is improving year-on-year, and we hope this can become an annual feature of our playing calendar," Kari Carswell, Head of Women's Cricket at the MCC, quoted. 

"Women's cricket globally is on the rise and I see these sorts of tours as providing positive experiences to those involved – on both sides, and giving people lots of opportunities to fulfil their potential," Carswell concluded.