The inaugural edition of the Euro T20 Slam, which had been set to take place in the Netherlands, Scotland, and Ireland in August and September, has been postponed until 2020.

“The board of the Euro T20 Slam, funding partners and franchise owners of this exciting new T20 tournament have reluctantly come to the decision that staging of the event will not be possible in 2019,” said Prashant Mishra, the competition’s founder.

“We want to ensure that the inaugural staging of the Euro T20 Slam provides the best springboard to making this a truly flagship event on the global cricket calendar. As such, we believe the right course of action is to postpone the Slam to a further date. This will give us the necessary breathing space to ensure we are ready to go.

“We will work with the three cricket boards, our principal investors, the franchise owners, players and other stakeholders within the game to ensure we fulfil any commitments we have made to the extent possible. We want to ensure the goodwill and integrity that we have built up rolls on into 2020.”

The recently concluded Global T20 Canada, which was put on by the team behind the Euro T20 Slam, was beset with problems, with the players involved at one point refusing to travel to a game because of missing payments.

The development will come as a blow to Ireland, Scotland, and Netherlands’ men’s teams, with the tournament, featuring local players from those countries and some of the best T20 players from around the world, set to serve as a key part of their preparations for the upcoming Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier, which will be held in the UAE in October.