Cricket Ireland left embarrassed over farcical Irish and National Cup draws

The biggest fiasco came in the National Cup draw where former North West club Drummond, who folded over a year ago, were bizarrely drawn out of the hat to face Knockharley.

In the Irish Cup, those carrying out the draw appeared to forget that the traditional format for the first-round draw of Ireland’s premier club competition prevents teams from the same union being drawn to face one another.

The result was that NCU sides Instonians and Lisburn were drawn against one another at Shaw’s Bridge while in Leinster, Clontarf will host North County.

The errors were realised after the draws were made but Cricket Ireland have decided that the Irish Cup draw will stand while in the National Cup Drummond’s opponents Knockharley will receive a bye into the next round.

In a statement, Elaine Nolan, Participation Director at Cricket Ireland, said: “We apologise unreservedly for two mistakes we’ve made in relation to the draws for our premier national club competitions.

“In relation to the National Cup, we picked up after the draw that an administrative error led to ‘Drummond Cricket Club’ being entered into the draw. This was obviously a mistake, and we apologise for this oversight. As a result the opponent drawn against that team – Knockharley – will receive an automatic bye to the second round.”

Andrew Fleming, Chair of the Cricket Ireland Cricket Committee, added :“The purpose of the first-round tradition has been to give an opportunity to clubs from different Unions to play against each other. The fact of teams being drawn from the same Union should have been picked up at the time of the draw – again, we hold our hands up.”

“However, while it is a tradition, it is not part of the fixed rules of the competition and, in that regard, it has been decided that the draw made earlier today should stand this year. Cricket Committee will discuss the rules of the 2021 competition following the conclusion of this year’s competition.

“Once again, we are sorry for this circumstance, and we shall also be conducting a review of our processes internally to ensure these errors do not reoccur.”

The Irish Cup draw is as follows: Eglinton v Merrion • Coleraine v Strabane • Glendermott v Ballyspallen • CSNI v Cork County • Donemana v Rush • Malahide v North Down • Bready v Carrickfergus • Brigade v YMCA • Leinster v Cork Harlequins • Woodvale v The Hills • Clontarf v North County • Instonians v Lisburn.

The National Cup draw is as follows: Co Kerry v Laois • Balbriggan v North Kildare • Muckamore v DLR County • St Johnston v Bonds Glen • Knockharley v Drummond • Cregagh v Cliftonville Academy • Ardmore v Co Sligo • Saintfield v Ballyhaunis • The Nedd v Downpatrick • Newbuildings v Ballaghaderreen • Fox Lodge v Ballymena • Co Galway v Limerick • Longford v Midleton • Burndennett v Killyclooney • Derriaghy v Terenure.