| What now for the future of Irish
cricket? Their second World Cup victory has deservedly earned
Ireland’s cricket side a place on the LG ICC One-Day International
Championship table with their name now appearing in the official rankings
table.
Having being part of the ICC Associate ODI Rankings Ireland now graduate
to the ICC ODI Championship after defeating both Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Once an Associate has played at least 10 ODIs in total they have the opportunity
to be promoted to the main table. To gain this promotion the Associate
must achieve two wins against full members as Ireland did during the World
Cup.
The ideal situation for Ireland now would be for them to play anywhere
between 15 and 25 one-day matches against the lesser sides like Bangladesh
and Zimbabwe and Associate Members as well as perhaps 3-5 games against
Test nations in a year. Games have already been planned this summer against
India and South Africa at Stormont but even though the sport is enjoying
an increasing popularity, the team might struggle initially to attract
the top nations because Ireland has no big cricket arenas to accommodate
attendances of more than 10,000.
Further progress in Irish cricket could therefore depend on how much public
demand there will be for their newly-discovered sport just as much as
how quickly the Irish Cricket Union (ICU) react to the national team’s
unexpected success. That will be just one of a number of challenges facing
the sport in the coming months including:
Will the ICU with only one full-time member of staff have the resources
to deal with the sport’s increased popularity?
Can cricket sustain sufficient interest throughout Ireland to fit comfortably
into the current popular culture of the country?
At grass-roots level will the educational system permit cricket to become
part of a school’s curriculum, especially in the Republic?
Irish cricket may be on the up but the successful Caribbean adventure
can only have a lasting impact if more young players decide to adopt the
game as their prime sport. It’s a big ask in a country already flooded
with other sporting codes. |
