But setting aside the politics and whether Cricket Ireland should have been there in the first place, the win in the last match vindicates the cricket argument. Yes, it would have been nice to have won the series, but let’s get real, three years ago we were lauding the team for a tie against Zimbabwe at Sabina Park, and now we are competing with them in their own backyard on equal terms. These were three compelling games and with a rub of the green we could have won the series. Either way, the players performed admirably.
Cricket Ireland has come a long way in three years and the victory in the final game was vital as it cemented our number ten rating and that’s a big bonus in the current climate. Individually there were many highlights and of course a fair share of disappointments, but in the culture of ODI cricket the squad system allows plenty of opportunity when some of the big names fail. Doors of opportunity were wide open in Zimbabwe and that’s not a bad thing when you are trying to keep everyone happy. It is all too easy for armchair critics to speculate on selection, but Phil Simmons knows what’s happening on the ground and I’d back his judgement before a bunch of nobodies sounding off on a computer.
In that vein the criticism of Ian Callender for his remarks about the current state of Zimbabwe were totally unjustified and unfair. Ian is entitled to say it as he sees it, and although others will disagree with his opinion, it doesn’t mean he hasn’t the right to pass comment, especially since he is in Harare. As for his cricket commentary, that in itself has been another monumental step forward for Irish cricket in the past three years. Ian has given Irish cricket a huge fillip with his superb coverage of the game, and his commitment goes well beyond the call of duty.
Just where this trip leaves Cricket Ireland going forward is subject to conjecture. The status of the Inter-Continental Cup has been damaged by Scotland not playing Zimbabwe and the bizarre forfeiture of the match by Zimbabwe Cricket. We have to assume the ICC brokered the deal, but it could not have worked out better for Cricket Scotland, who now move into the final on virtually their own terms. Good luck to them, but there is something intrinsically wrong with rewarding a team with full points when they didn’t play the match.
Associate Cricket is now in a quandary after some ICC missives in recent times and we have to wonder how the game will develop outside the elite test countries with such tunnel vision. Certainly the proposal to limit the 2015 World Cup to ten countries is great if you are one of the ten, but for aspiring nations outside the Top Ten then it is a closed shop to their ambitions. Perhaps of more importance, it also guarantees them crumbs from the table, rather than a full meal, as there is little doubt this is all about money. Strange at it may seem in Ireland and Bangladesh, their 2007 World Cup wins against Pakistan and India have come back to haunt them, as the powerful Asian countries are now making it virtually impossible for them to be eliminated in the early stages. Money is everything in world cricket these days and the powerful commercial interests that back Twenty20 cricket are now showing more muscle than Kerry Packer did when he successfully beat cricket elitism over twenty years ago.
We now have the ludicrous situation where established test cricketers like Dwayne Bravo refusing a central contact with the West Indies Board to go freelance. In simple terms, he goes to the highest bidder.
Cricket is at a bigger crossroads than most people imagine, and the men who control its future are not the ICC, but the money barons in Asia.
Clarence Hiles
Editor
