Cricket Ireland CEO Warren Deutrom says he expects a decision on the Irish cricket team achieving international test status to come in October.
Earlier today, The Times of London reported that the ICC are set to alter their plans for giving associate nations Test status, by welcoming Ireland and Afghanistan to the top table of world cricket.
Speaking to Off The Ball tonight, Deutrom said: "There's a meeting in October in Cape Town in about three weeks time and there are some proposals that have been put on the table following a workshop that I attended in Dubai in early September. There were a lot of ideas kicked around. It wasn't just about test cricket.
"We've been asked to be fairly circumspect about the specifics of what's on the table but the press release that came out after that said there are going to be more opportunities for more teams in all formats of the game. And certainly, if I was to take anything from those meetings, there was positive encouragement towards more teams playing test cricket. The decision will hopefully be made in mid-October but the actual starting point for the new proposals wouldn't probably be until after the 2019 World Cup and if there were going to be a couple of new test countries, that would depend on the finishing positions of the four-day competition for non-test countries called the Continental Cup which doesn't finish until about October next year. Now, Ireland's doing well in that. We've got maximum points from out of the seven games and Afghanistan is in second place. So nothing guaranteed but then that's always been the case with Irish cricket. We make sure we do our best to be in pole position when the opportunities come."
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