Ireland currently has associate nation status within the International Cricket Council (ICC), but has performed impressively at recent World Cups and has long harboured ambitions of joining the Test fold. The establishment of the country’s inaugural first-class domestic structure and increased commercial funding to fund extensive grassroots programmes were among the initiatives unveiled by Cricket Ireland chief executive Warren Deutrom on Tuesday.

“We have set ourselves a very clear long-term ambition – to become a full Test nation by 2020, nothing less,” he said. “This is not a dreamy aspiration but a real ambition founded on the playing talent being developed on this island, the growing passion and profile of the game here, a sustained and proven track record of achievement on and off the field, and a clear roadmap set out by us for how to get there.”

Deutrom confirmed that a number of new commercial funding deals are in place, while Cricket Ireland’s principal sponsor RSA Insurance is understood to have extended its deal until 2015. “We have and will continue to receive fantastic support from RSA Insurance as our main commercial partner and we look forward to extending the scale and scope of that support,” added Deutrom. “A formal announcement of this and other commercial deals will be made in the coming weeks. This allows us to proceed with confidence as we work towards our vision of becoming a Test nation by 2020.”