...may not have pleased some traditionalists within Irish cricket but the talented former Donemana man will have realized long ago that you can’t please everyone around Irish cricket.
The recent Ballywho about him acting as a sub fielder for England highlights the naivety of some cricket correspondents who can’t see any further than their noses when it comes to understanding the dilemma talented young cricketers from Ireland face trying to make a career from the sport, and at the same time hold onto national loyalties that have served them well in the past. It’s not William Porterfield’s fault that much of the administration within international cricket is a shambles and that the county scene is a dying dinosaur that will eventually disappear as commercial interests remove one of the most archaic and useless sporting structures in modern cricket. Nobody watches county cricket these days, but for aspiring young Irish cricketers it is the only plausible stepping stone into the professional ranks. And therein lies the crux of the debate, as you are comparing apples with oranges when you compare county cricket to the Cricket Ireland set-up. County cricket is a professional structure where players are employed on contracts and paid wages for their services in much the same way that most people go about their daily jobs. Playing for the county and even sub fielding when required by the England team at your home ground, is part and parcel of the job, and William’s appearance against New Zealand last weekend should not have been demeaned by misguided criticism from armchair critics of just about everything in cricket these days. William is a brilliant world-class fielder and it is highly probable the England team specifically asked for him.
For those who don’t care to recognize the difference between apples and oranges, CricketIrelandis amateur sport and the best that players can achieve in Irelandcolours is to showcase their talents and to play with pride for their country. The Irish squad has done that superbly in recent years but when we can’t create a professional structure to hold onto players that want to make a career out of cricket, we should take some pride in watching them rise through the professional ranks and welcome them back with open arms when the opportunities aren’t there. A case in point is Andrew White who would dearly have loved to be plying his trade in county cricket these days but it didn’t work out and what a great stalwart ‘Whitey’ has been in our national team in the past two years.
Cricket Ireland can’t solve the problem, but if we want to participate as a national team in professional ‘club’ competitions then anomalies are inevitable. Amateur Cricket Ireland can’t have first call on players whose wages are being paid for by the counties, and the sooner we all recognize the difference the sooner we can set aside all this nonsense about divided loyalties and conflicts of interest. Irish players playing in county cricket have only one loyalty and that is to their employer. Setting that aside, they all love CricketIrelandand may well return at some stage when the rules change.
After all, players should be released for competitive national competitions sanctioned by the ICC (not exhibition matches) especially World Cup qualifying tournaments. Much of the chaos in international and county cricket comes from poor rules and precedents. The concept of overseas players qualifying to play for another country is absurd, and the ability of players to play for different countries in the same competition as Ed Joyce did in the 2007 Cricket World Cup is just as ridiculous.
Let’s encourage Niall O’Brien, Ed Joyce and now William Porterfield in their pursuit of test status, because until we have a professional structure in Ireland we can’t offer an alternative to players looking for a career in the sport.
Perhaps the solution will eventually come from Twenty20 Indian business interests and Sir Allen Stanford who may replace traditional cricket structures with more lucrative business models. And maybe a Cricket Ireland franchise is not such wishful thinking but the way forward?
In the meantime good luck William Porterfield.
Clarence Hiles
Editor
