ICC needs to support Ireland
Roar Rookie By John Colley, 11 May 2012 John Colley is a Roar Rookie
- Tagged:
- Cricket, cricket World Cup, ICC, ireland cricket
If cricket wants to develop into a world game it needs to fully support the development of the Irish Cricket team.
The Irish Cricket team announced their arrival on the world stage back in 2007 at the World Cup when they defeated Pakistan.
Since then, Ireland’s reputation has been increasing as they have picked up the full-member scalps of Bangladesh, the West Indies and Zimbabwe. Their biggest scalp, however, was that of England, at last year’s World Cup.
Last month, Cricket Ireland submitted a proposal to the ICC with the aim of increasing the number of ODI matches they play against full-member nations.
Aside from World Cups, Ireland only plays Test-playing nations a few times each year. Cricket Ireland’s new proposal aims for Ireland to play around 12-16 ODIs against full members each year.
The ICC will look at the proposal at their next meeting, which is to be held in June. Cricket Ireland hopes that the ICC will help to organise ODI matches during gaps in the Future Tours Program.
There are essentially three tiers in international cricket.
The lowest is the affiliates, which includes unheralded nations such as Oman and Mexico.
The middle tier is the associates, which includes nations such as Scotland and the Netherlands.
The highest tier is the Test-playing nations, of which there are 10.
While Ireland sits in the second tier as an associate nation, their performances indicate they have outgrown the other associates. Ireland has won 30 of their last 33 matches against associates.
In their proposal, Cricket Ireland are also seeking funding from the ICC for a new academy for talented cricketers from both the north and south of Ireland.
Even over its short history, the Irish have produced some strong international talent.
Most noticeably they are the breeding ground of Eoin Morgan, who has played Tests for England and is a crucial member of their limited-overs teams.
Ireland also has some talented youngsters in the team, with the likes of Paul Stirling and George Dockrell proving to be very exciting cricketers.
Ireland is also seeking help from the ICC to help establish a first-class competition. Cricket Ireland plan to model the competition of the Irish Rugby, which involves an inter-provincial competition based around Dublin, Belfast and Derry.
If the ICC is serious about furthering the development of cricket around the world they need to fully support the plans of Cricket Ireland.
Ireland are clearly too strong for their fellow associates and at this stage are probably more competitive than Zimbabwe; Ireland need to be challenged.
They have shown that they are more than capable of producing talented young cricketers, who would only be strengthened by the establishment of the academy and the first-class competition.
The ICC have the ambition to turn cricket into a world game.
As such, when a nation has come up through the system they need to be supported and be given every opportunity to succeed on the highest level.
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The Crowd Says (5) | Page 1 of Comments
Have Your Say
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- Cricket, cricket World Cup, ICC, ireland cricket
May 11th 2012 @ 3:59pm
Lolly said | May 11th 2012 @ 3:59pm | Report comment
The ICC needs to overhaul the structure of the executive but you’ve got buckley’s chance of that, considering the big thumbs down the board members gave to the recent enquiry.
May 11th 2012 @ 4:25pm
Russ said | May 11th 2012 @ 4:25pm | Report comment
I’d argue that while technically there are three tiers, functionally there are six.
The rich: England, Australia, India, maybe South Africa, who play regular full length series and pointless long ODI money-spinners
The minor test teams: who play short 2/3 test series and struggle to keep their players out of the IPL
The minnow test teams (Ban/Zim): who are only reluctantly hosted.
The eight high performance associates: who play the I-Cup (f/c and ODI) competition (technically Afghanistan is an affiliate)
The WCL associate/affiliates: who play every year or so in the WCL tournament
The Rest: with limited structures who play regional tournaments (mostly T20).
The key aspect in this is that the bottom three tiers are meritocratic, in that performance determines where and how often you play. Whereas access to the top three tiers is based entirely on economic factors; namely, how much money you’ll make. Which is a completely messed up way of organising the sport, but also means that the powerless ICC is peripheral to Ireland’s hopes. What matters is whether other teams can generate income from playing them.
At least at one level they should do okay, they are a relatively wealthy Western nation, they play in the northern summer with only England to compete with for tours. Assuming their tours can turn a profit, other teams have nothing to lose by going there. It is less clear they will be invited to tour, as the major teams are both too good and too busy, and the minor teams won’t profit from hosting them.
At a broader level, allowing Ireland to ascend to the minnow tier (or even the minor tier) will cause more problems than it solves. Contrary to your claim, the next best associate (Afghanistan) is almost as good as Ireland, and the others aren’t far behind that. So the same argument will be repeated with some other team instead. The fixturing will become even more condensed, unsatisfying and confusing. The English and Australian press, supported by CA and ECB accountants, will be even more indignant about having to play lesser nations.
What Lolly said is true, the IC needs to overhaul its executive. It also needs to overhaul the Future Tours Program, implement global domestic T20 windows to protect international and f/c cricket, and make scheduling between the top three tiers meritocratic. Good luck with any of that.
May 11th 2012 @ 4:38pm
Ian Whitchurch said | May 11th 2012 @ 4:38pm | Report comment
What Russ said.
May 11th 2012 @ 10:23pm
Fivehole said | May 11th 2012 @ 10:23pm | Report comment
Agree wholeheartedly with the article – i’d like them to play a few “tests” against Bangladesh, Kenya & Zimbabwe. If the are good enough add them to the official test playing nations. – if you must demote someone, have a home and away test series playoff.
May 15th 2012 @ 12:39pm
abhay said | May 15th 2012 @ 12:39pm | Report comment
plz support to the ireland cricket team….
It will be helpful for ireland cricket board n also those nation team which will be grow up
n its also good for spreding of cricket ….