http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/conte ... 04267.htmlbasically Sky/ECB hold Ireland tv home rights basically Sky doesn't show/broadcast any Ireland homes games apart from England games and one australia games which was a washout but generally they never broadcast or provided tv footage for Ireland vs pak/sri lanka games.
Basically Ireland can't find ways of broadcasting their games on TV because of the ECB/Sky deal and this is no BS story people that follow associate cricket and have spoken to ireland cricket people have said that yes the Sky/ECB deal does make it so much difficult to attract other teams since team's broadcasters can't show the ireland games without Sky/ECB approval and Sky have ever been interested in Showing non Ireland/Scotland vs England games.
Under the terms of the ECB's deal with Cricket Ireland for 2008-13, it gained ownership of media rights for all Ireland's home international matches. In return, Cricket Ireland receives an annual fee, the chance to play in some of England one-day competitions should it so wish and coaching support.
ESPNcricinfo has learned that the ECB then refused to sanction the matches in any circumstances because it was concerned that its lucrative broadcasting deal with Sky TV, which guarantees exclusive TV coverage of cricket in England, Ireland and Scotland, could be undermined in the long term by the alternative attraction of an IPL side playing in Ireland. The Sky deal underpins the survival of first-class cricket in England.
The ECB holds the broadcast rights for both Ireland and Scotland and used its right of veto over televised fixtures in those countries to
Any games in Ireland/Scotland that want to be televised on TV need permission from Sky/ECB.
Ireland can show the games but only on the internet no TV coverage allowed unless Sky/ECB produces it or allows other companies to show it.
the biggest prove is that none of pakistan vs Ireland games have been televised and I can guarantee you 2-3 pak/asian broadcasters would have wanted to show the game, before the Sky deal Ireland attracted India/SA tri series before 07 tour, Scotland had one India vs pak game and other game and the reason was because Indian broadcasters were allowed to show the game and the fact rights were so much cheaper than normal india games.
http://www.itsonlycricket.com/entry/447/Afghanistan are probably lucky they have no restriction in place to show games since both teams would find it more difficult to play games/find fixture but Afg got the advantage right now of being in Asia and having asia cup every 2 years and because of geo politics and generally Sri lanka playing pak/Ban quite a bit you can probably add Afg into the list.
Afghanistan should have regular fixtures against Pak, Sri lanka so they should play far more games than Ireland.
Ireland only played 11 games in 2011 and 2015 against other full members.
Afghanistan already played 10 games in the last 12 months (forgot Zimbabwe)
Ireland have never really had a meaningful fixture list apart from 1 or 2 games each year where as Afghanistan were getting 5-6 games each year against full members.
Edit sorry for swearing.
