Warren Deutrom: New stadium just what Irish cricket needs

Cricket Ireland chief executive Warren Deutrom has welcomed the news that the sport will soon have a permanent home in Dublin.

On Friday, Minister for Sport Catherine Martin gave the go-ahead to the governing body to proceed with planning for the construction of a cricket oval with permanent seating at the Sport Ireland Campus in Dublin 15.

Ireland became one of 12 Test nations in 2017 but have since played only three full-form matches, hosting one, against Pakistan in 2018.

Cricket Ireland has been installing temporary facilities to host crowds of 11,500 at Malahide Cricket Club for international games, at significant expense.

"What's different is that the facilities being envisioned by the government are permanent facilities," Deutrom told RTÉ Sport of the proposed new stadium.

"It is extremely costly to put in place all of the permanent infrastructure which is required to satisfy the International Cricket Council's exacting criteria to be able to host international cricket against the best teams in the world.

"It costs us €100,000s per year. That is clearly financially unsustainable, it has been for years. We would much prefer to be putting that funding into the game itself.

"It's also incredibly environmentally unsustainable to have trucks, all this infrastructure moving in and out and being erected and dismantled on an annual basis.

"Having a place to call our own in Dublin is exactly what we need for a sport of our size and stature in Irish sport."

Deutrom said that capacity and ownership of the stadium had yet to be finalised.

"Who pays? That's going to be a discussion we enter into with the government. At this stage it's too early to provide any insight into that element. Ownership and renting is a discussion we need to