By Mikey Godsmark
Ireland have long been considered the leader of associate cricket but their thirst for test status may well see this change.
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| Ireland's victory against Pakistan shocked cricket |
In 2007 Ireland played in their first ever Cricket World Cup
in the West Indies. Drawn against the hosts, Pakistan and Zimbabwe nobody gave
them a hope of getting through to the ‘Super 8s’ as one of the top two teams.
Two games later they had tied with Zimbabwe and beaten Pakistan to progress to
the ‘Super 8s’ in which they recorded a further victory against Bangladesh.
This tournament announced Ireland to the world as the leading associate nation
but as this golden generation ages, ICC reforms may be coming too late for the
Irish.
The main problem in my opinion, for Irish cricket, is that
they seem to be placing all of their eggs, in the test basket. To an extent
this plan is working. They have won all three of their games in the Intercontinental
Cup, the ICC’s international first-class tournament, and are favourites to go
all the way and win. However, there are many problems with this strategy.
Firstly if the Irish do win the Intercontinental Cup they,
as it stands, will play in a four match test series against the bottom ranked
test side, almost certainly Zimbabwe. Ireland must win this series and will win
temporary test status for the next four years. No side has ever won their first
test series and Ireland will need to at least draw against Zimbabwe away once
and then hope that rain doesn’t intervene in Ireland and win the two test
matches there. With the idea of Test Championship looking all the less likely
with the BCCI coming out against it, this is Ireland’s only way of receiving test
status in the immediate future.
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| Would test cricket be worth it for Ireland? |
Secondly, even if Ireland do win the ‘glittering prize’ as
the ICC farcically put it, what do they actually gain. Yes they have the right
to play test matches, but Zimbabwe have the right to play tests and didn’t play
a single one in nearly two years, so much so that they had to be removed from
the test rankings. The current system of bilateral series means that the main
though of test cricket for the smaller full members is to play India, England
and Australia in the hope of making enough money to keep on playing their players
for another couple of years. Ireland would have no guaranteed fixtures, and the
chances of England agreeing to play them in anything other than a two match
series in May, are very slim indeed.
Thirdly, their concentration on getting test status has been
at huge detriment to their other formats. Ireland have played nine ODIs this
summer, an unthinkable number a few years ago, but have won just two of them against
Afghanistan and lost all of the games against full member that weren’t washed
out. Their 255 run thrashing against
Pakistan demonstrates how one day cricket is being sacrificed in Ireland's quest for tests.
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| The Loss to Oman shows how far Ireland have fallen |
T20s have suffered even more dramatically. Ireland are now
ranked 15th in T20Is below all the full members, Afghanistan,
Scotland, Netherlands and the UAE. They lost every game at the World T20
including a shocking loss against Oman, a team in the lower reaches of the
World Cricket League. With the World Cup being reduced to 10 teams the World
T20 looks like associate members’ best chance of recognition on the world stage
as Afghanistan demonstrated by beating Zimbabwe and West Indies as well as
giving England an almighty scare.
Unless the ICC does go ahead with its ideas for a two
division Test Championship, Ireland may be overtaken by their associate competitors
in the formats that matter most and will cease to be a force on the world
stage.
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