DUBLIN – According to a press release by Cricket Ireland, the officials at Zimbabwe Cricket have advised Cricket Ireland that their scheduled tour to Zimbabwe in April cannot proceed due to the dire COVID-19 situation the country is experiencing. The Irish men’s squad was supposed to head to Harare on March 28 this year and play limited over series including a 3 match T20I series and a 3 three-match ODI series in April. Zimbabwe Cricket and Cricket Ireland have agreed to reschedule and postpone the tour to a later date. High Performance Director for Cricket Ireland, Richard Holdsworth said: “We’re obviously disappointed, but to be honest, it is not an unexpected announcement from our Zimbabwean counterparts. We appreciate their efforts and willingness to try and make the tour possible, but in the end the health and safety of players and support staff must be of primary consideration.” “We’ll now look at whether alternate fixtures can be arranged during that period, which is a crucial window in advance of a busy home season and in a T20 World Cup year.” “This places even greater importance on the proposed Ireland Wolves tour in February/March given the need to provide many of our players the volume and quality of cricket we need to keep the momentum in player development we have been seeing over the last few years. We expect to be providing an update on the Wolves situation in the coming days.” The Irish Men have a busy year ahead with three visiting teams during the summer and several scheduled tours along with the ICC T20 World Cup in October.