Our national game has come a long way and the players and their management have done everything they can to showcase our playing strength with some superb performances. We may feel short-changed with only a tie from these two matches, especially as both could have gone our way with the rub off the green, but in this type of cricket you wipe down the flannels and bounce back with determination to win the next game.
The two performances on the field will do much to raise Ireland’s playing profile at the highest level, but what impact will it have on the ICC administrators? Ireland’s future is determined by a number of factors and while our own administrators and our players have put us in the frame to rise to another level, the ICC will not be easily swayed until we comply with the other requirements needed on the route to a status higher than Associate Membership. We have earned it and if the ICC was a more principled governing body it would accommodate a country that is doing all that is needed to move up the ladder at a time when Zimbabwe and the West Indies are in fast fall. An immediate recognition would be more matches against the test playing countries to expose our players at the highest level. Another consideration would be to stop the movement of players from one country to another and end the loss of our best players to England. Two or three players may not be in favour, but the future of Irish cricket is a much bigger consideration that whether our best players make the fringe of the England squad and how passionate can you be playing for another country? The qualification to play for another country should be at least ten years.
Cricket Ireland Chief Executive Warren Deutrom was a model of Public Relations when dealing with the issue of Pakistan’s exile from the international family on security grounds. It costs nothing to say we will go if there are security guarantees and perhaps other countries will go on the same terms. However, the realism is that this won’t happen in the foreseeable future and Ireland doesn’t need to go into a war zone to win test status. That said, we can appreciate the frustration as sportspeople are not politicians and we remember how it felt in isolation during the Seventies when we were blackballed in the north because of the Troubles. The circumstances may not be exactly the same, but the end result was international isolation.
Warren’s diplomacy drew the right response from the Pakistan camp, who highly complimented the Irish performances, so perhaps a bond could be developed going forward. After all, playing a few games in Ireland every other season could be worked into the schedule of a country that doesn’t play at home and what about a four or five day match to challenge our players in test match conditions? There is also the potential support from a large Pakistan community in Ireland, who could be channelled into the Irish game rather than depend on the occasional visit of their parent country.
In the meantime let’s get the Interprovincial Series up and running and move towards our long-term goals. Let’s get players, fans and administrators behind the initiative and if somebody has the ear of big Boyd Rankin then ask him to rethink his cricket career, as he could have been the difference in the two matches against Pakistan. He would be welcomed back with open arms in much the same way that Ed Joyce has resurrected his Irish career with such aplomb.
Perhaps the Ireland captain will have a word in his ear when he gets back to Edgbaston?
Clarence Hiles
Editor
