…as usual old Jupiter Pluvius spoiled the party and it’s a case of catch-up before we are barely out of the blocks.
You have to love your cricket to get any satisfaction from the start of the local season over the last few years, but that won’t dampen the enthusiasm of Lisburn Cricket Club members, who once again showed there are no certainties in sport. Their win over North Down in the opening match of the NCU season was a second successive drumming for the league champions, and while one swallow doesn’t make a summer, that singular upset was enough to lift the spirits of every other NCU premier team. The same could be said in the North-West where the mighty Donemana also fell at the first hurdle, but before anyone starts sending me hate email, I expect both clubs to be there at the finish come August, or more likely September, if the predicted sunny summer doesn’t materialize.
Despite these two upsets some things never change. The annual bashing of CI and cheque-book recruitment is getting a bit boring, not because it hasn’t got some merit if that is your viewpoint, but because we’ve heard it all before and nothing much has changed. All the talking in local cricket these days seems to be done on cricket websites, because very few changes come about at the AGMs which have the real power. We therefore have to assume the website correspondents don’t attend these meetings or don’t reflect the overall views within the unions. After all, the overseas pros have been around in the modern game since 1979, so after thirty years you would think the anti-pro lobby had enough time to win their case?
I love the vocabulary in this contentious debate; ‘blank cheques,’ ‘sugar daddies,’ ‘pay-to-play,’ ‘rent-a-team.’ and now perhaps the best of all, the concept of the ‘sub pro.’ I have to say that’s a new one, although the practice of flying in a hit man for a weekend has been in operation since 1980 when Limavady ‘recruited’ the great Kapil Dev for the North-West Senior Cup Final against Sion Mills. Little wonder the County Tyronemen didn’t turn up for the third day as they’d had enough!
North Down hired Mohammad Saddiq for their match against CI who have been just as controversial with their recruitment in recent times, and no doubt the Comber men recalled with some distaste the thrashing they received last year from Strabane’s weekly fly-in hit man in the Ulster Cup semi-final. It all comes down to different strokes for different folks, and dare I say if you are not breaking the rules then who can criticise? However, breaking the rules is another moot point, and something I want to stay well clear of at this stage of the season.
It has also been another predictable poor start to the ‘domestic’ season for theIreland team, but little wonder with half their team now in the opposition. Even the mighty Manchester United would struggle if five of their best players were taken out of their team and put into the opposition. And that’s why the return of Jeremy Bray should be welcomed with open arms. Most people have been receptive to the controversial return of the ‘prodigal son’ even although he didn’t endear himself to officialdom with his “Irish cricket is a joke” comment after the 2007 World Cup. It may not have been the smartest PR exercise but Jeremy said what all the other players were privately thinking, given that they had gone months without agreed payments and the whole Cricket Ireland operation was running on a shoestring. But time to forgive and forget and move forward, because losing five of your best players and with another injured, there’s no much merit in holding onto old sores. Well done big Phil in separating sores from scores and moving Irish cricket forward in challenging times.
I’m sure we haven’t heard the last of the professional debate at local level, and I’m sure there’s a rules controversy looming down the line, but right now let’s hope for some better weather and cricket action.
Good luck to all teams whether you are ambitious or not, whether you play in the premier league or in the minor league, or whether you were born in Comber or Timbuktu, because the game is still a sport, and if you don’t appreciate that then you’ll get very little out of it at any level.
Clarence Hiles
Editor
