The tournament, which had been billed as the first multinational T20 franchise tournament, was due to start in the Netherlands in just over two weeks’ time. It was then set to head to Scotland and Ireland, with local talent from the three countries playing alongside some of the best T20 players in the world, including ICC MRF Tyres No.1 ranked T20I batsman Babar Azam and England’s Men’s Cricket World Cup winning captain Eoin Morgan.

“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 tournament’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.”