Porterfield leaves Ireland tour
Will Porterfield, the Ireland captain, has withdrawn from his side's tour of Australia and New Zealand for personal reasons. He flew back to the UK on Thursday.
ESPNcricinfo staff
17-Oct-2014
Will Porterfield will miss the New Zealand leg of Ireland's tour • ICC
William Porterfield, the Ireland captain, has withdrawn from his side's tour of Australia and New Zealand for personal reasons. He flew back to the UK on Thursday.
Porterfield was in charge of Ireland's aclimitisation tour ahead of the World Cup, which begins in February. Ireland are set to compete in their third World Cup and open their campaign in Nelson on February 16 against West Indies.
Ireland will not call up a replacement for the remaining three matches of the tour, which has now moved to New Zealand after four games in Australia.
Porterfield enjoyed his best county season to date with Warwickshire. He did not play in Ireland's opening match of the tour at Gold Coast, a 230-run loss to Queensland. Porterfield then played but did not bat in the second match of the tour in Brisbane, another loss to Queensland this time by 151 runs. He was back opening the batting and made 23 in Ireland's victory over Australian Capital Territory and 42 as Ireland chased down 305 against the same opponents two days later.
Ireland are now in New Zealand to play in Hamilton on Saturday before two further matches in Lincoln complete their tour, which ends on October 23. Four of Ireland's six World Cup group matches are in New Zealand.