... in the recently finished Interprovincial highlight the impact Ireland-qualified players can make in this competition.
That’s not to say a locally born player would not have made a similar impact, but nobody has topped 200 at this level before so we can assume the affable Australian and his South African teammate added considerably to the Northern Knights’ moral victory in the drawn game.
The match must have delighted National Coach Phil Simmons as it produced a high number of excellent performances and this is surely what this competition is all about. There’s no point whinging about playing young players for the future of Irish cricket as the future of Irish cricket is now! If a young player is good enough he has to be better than the man in possession and if he’s not able to show that then he won’t make it. Donemana’s Andy McBrine is a good example. The young North-West player has deservedly won an Ireland call-up on ability despite some indifferent team performances and he will get better. Larkin and Cameron-Dow have now raised the bar and helped the Northern Knights to compete strongly, and it is up to the North-West to do the same. They have the same options and one source should be overseas Ireland-qualified players.
Five clubs in the NCU top section have overseas-qualified players and they appear to have made the league more competitive. It would be stupid for the NCU to ignore their presence at representative level, especially looking at the composition and strength of the Leinster squad. The trophies will all go south this year, but the standard has been set and the two northern teams have to raise their game to compete. Let’s stop complaining about the Celtic Tiger, as it is now dead and buried. The overseas Ireland-qualified players in Dublin have probably less job opportunities these days than in the north!
Not everybody agrees with an overseas recruitment policy, but at present it is controlled by a number of factors. However, we can look back at the tremendous success Irish football achieved when Jackie Charlton championed the “Does your Granny come from Ireland” campaign 20 years ago. Those were halcyon years for Irish football with packed stadiums and World Cup fairy tales. Irish cricket has benefitted from a similar strategy and it has now filtered down to club level in the north.
North Down might be a club that comes in for criticism with two overseas-qualified players and a professional in their team, but the younger players know they now have to excel to make the 1st XI. That’s a healthy position and Peter Eakin, Ali Shields and Tim Carson have already risen to the challenge. And if anyone doubts the spin-offs down the club then look at North Down’s 2nd XI success under the enthusiastic and inspirational leadership of young Andrew Haire.
Peter Shields toured with the Ulster Grasshoppers to South Africa in March/April and met James Cameron-Dow. The rest is history. Nick Larkin and Tim Ley have been excellent coaches at The Green this season and along with the club have arranged for Peter Eakin to spend the winter in Australia to develop his cricket. These are the spin-offs for visionary cricket administrators and we all need to look outside our town’s 30mph signs and see a whole new world of opportunity out there.
You can sink or swim. The choice is yours!
Clarence Hiles
Editor
