Re: Ireland vs Pakistan, only Test, May 11 - 15
Posted: Tue May 15, 2018 2:26 pm
backfootpunch wrote:Have to say I'm disappointed watching this seeing Ireland doing so well
Disappointed this didn't happen 5 years ago when all these Irish players were better players than they are now
I totally disagree. I think the timing of this fledgling test status is going to be terminal for the Irish case. With Brexit looming on the horizon, one has to ask what the state of Irish cricket and its capacity to survive and grow will be, once the UKs arrangement with Brussels is concluded.
We cant ignore the fact that this team is basically an Irish Born, English county XI. Without English cricket, none of these players would have anywhere to have developed or learn the game. They all came through the county system. In 2 years we could have a distinction whereby these players would either (a) have to sacrifice their Irish status to play as domestic players in England (b) would have to be recruited as overseas players. It seems unlikely that free movement between Ireland in the EU and the UK will survive it its currently, almost entirely unregulated form.
How many Irish players would chose a regional Irish side over the money on offer from Franchise cricket? Given the fact that, now its not going to be possible to go to England, fail, come back to Ireland and play. I'd say money will talk in a lot of cases. Opportunity and development will talk to others. Seems very little on offer for a young Irish cricketer faced with the two opportunities.
An additional problem comes with the very nature and definition of the team. This isnt a Southern Irish team, in fact I believe the majority of Irish cricketers in the past (and current actually) have come from Protestant areas of Londonderry and Belfast, are foreigners with grandfather/parent qualifications, with the rest exclusively coming from Dublin (and then mostly moving to English Uni's).
How is that going to work? A non-Eu country forming a sporting alliance with a EU country? Will legislation leave this arrangement unworkable? How is such a nationality defined? Are Northern Irish, which form at least half of the team, going to be forced to take up de facto Southern Irish citizenship in order to play for a United Ireland? I wonder how that will go down with a group historically utterly horrified by such a question. With a Hard Border, how would Northern Irish fans get to games easily? Will this impact revenues, attendances? Its more than likely any hardening of the Irish border and restrictions to free movement of workers will force Northern Irish players eastbound to England. Or in fact, further a case for a Northern and Southern Irish team.
Massive questions to be answered. I am one to fear that within 5 years, this experiment will have died a death as a consequence for wider politics out the game.
And thats before we start to ask how many teams will actually tour Ireland, or have them tour. Bangladesh have already been sacked off by Australia a week ago.