The 2015 Cricket World Cup will begin with favourites Australia, New Zealand and South Africa the most likely to win the crown.
While not much has been said about any team from the British Isles, the Irish ODI squad must be taken seriously.
Ireland qualified for their first World Cup in 2007 and have made enormous progress since. In 2011, they beat England, one of their most prized scalps across the international scene.
Unfortunately, we do not see these two nations face in the group stage this time around.
Jason Gillespie gave the nation adoring praise in December, stating that the ICC board could give cricket a boost by granting Ireland Test status.
England will be led by Eoin Morgan who is Irish and actually switched to play for England, presumably for more opportunities. Boyd Rankin is another notable to switch sides to play for England.
Clearly, Ireland are producing strong cricketers and there is no reason they cannot continue to do so. County cricket in England has been a good place for Irish cricketers to ply their trade and as a result they could be given Test status.
Ireland’s fixture allows them to quite possibly make it to the finals with South Africa the only favourite and India the only other notable opponent. If they were to beat either of those teams, what an upset it would be.
The ICC has made it possible for Ireland to gain Test status – along with other nations – through the Intercontinental cup, which from 2017 will allow the winner to place the bottom ranked Test nation.
Ireland has won this four out of six times.
Ireland could give greater credence and depending on the ICC’s actions, fast-track their Test status with good performances in the Cricket World Cup. Ireland had cited their desire to eventually reach Test status and by all accounts, could not do worse than Bangladesh.
The Irish nation will be backing their team to make a big performance in the 2015 World Cup and they could go very far in the tournament. Among the favourites, Ireland will be on my radar during World Cricket’s biggest tournament.
Shouts Chen
Guest
Ireland are an improving ODI cricket team since 2007 where they qualified for their first ICC World Cup after beating Pakistan. They managed to win over Bangladesh in the Super 8 stage. 4 years later, they managed to win over England by 3 wickets after chasing down by a whopping 328 runs. If Ireland can beat India, they could have a chance of qualifying for the second round.
Bovs
Guest
In the late 80s and early 90s Zimbabwe had a great team as an associate and were capable of beating test teams. In the late 90s Bangladesh had a lot of talented players as an associate and were capable of beating test teams. Since having been given test status, both those countries have done next to nothing for international cricket. Why? Because one good team or generation of players does not prove the infrastructure exists to produce a consistently competitive side. Kenya had a great team in the 90s, beating the Windies in the 1996 World Cup and then going on to make a WC semi-final. "Of course Tikolo and Obuya and Otieno could play test cricket" everyone said. But now just over a decade later they struggle to compete even at associate level because of corruption, lack of administrative infrastructure and less talent than that one-off good side. Ireland has to prove it would be different in these aspects before being given test status. All that said, if your argument was to restrict test cricket to the top 6 or 8 teams over a 3-year cycle and then expand the "second division" to include not just the worst 2-4 test teams but also the top few associates, then you'd have my support. TEST MATCH STATUS: Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, South Africa, England FIRST CLASS INTERNATIONALS: Sri Lanka, West Indies, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Ireland, Afghanistan ASSOCIATE STATUS: Netherlands, UAE, Scotland, Kenya, Canada, PNG As long as teams got a chance to move between divisions every 3 years, this would make for much more interesting cricket around the world... it would mean a lot more to see a series between the Windies and Bangladesh if the winner was going to earn the right to play Pakistan for test-match status!!!
Nate
Roar Rookie
Agreed.
Working Class Rugger
Guest
Cricket more so than many other sports has the opportunity to concentrate its development efforts one individual nations. It should be targeting the likes of Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands with the goal to grow the game domestically in each nations in terms of participation, coverage and facilities. They even have the luxury of looking to develop new nations like China and the U.S.
Foot
Guest
Rofl
Jack Smith
Roar Guru
Scotland still would get a shot during the Intercontinental cup. Ireland have won that four times, Scotland have won it once and then Afghanistan. All three have good percentage wins in the cup and would be the three nations that will probably compete. Zimbabwe and Bangladesh would still have to play winner of the cup if they finish last on test ladder. Would be interesting to see.
Camo McD
Roar Guru
Imagine how much further Ireland could improve if some of the top nations actually played them semi-regularly. Even Zimbabwe and Bangladesh hesitate to play them because they fear losing ranking points. It's a disgrace the lack of fixtures they receive against the full members - half of which they have already beaten from limited opportunities. They are a good side at present and their cricketing infrastructure has grown massively over the last decade but that will stagnate if they do not get big fixtures and their best players will continue to be pinched by England. Add Morgan and Rankin back into their line-up, they'd already be streets ahead of Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. The decision to reduce the World Cup to 10 teams is a sickening blow for these leading associate sides. If by some miracle Ireland do qualify for test status, with no FTP, nobody is even obliged to play against them. As a Scotland fan myself I am glad we get one final chance at a World Cup before the ICC take away the biggest incentive and opportunity for associate nations.