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***Unofficial*** Ireland Discussion Thread

BoyBrumby

Englishman
It'll be interesting to see how many more Poms go down the John Aldridge/Andy Townsend route. I think I read somewhere that 6 million English people have an least one Irish grandparent, which is roughly one one-ninth of the population, so satistically there's likely to be several who theoretically qualify.
 

Athlai

Not Terrible
It'll be interesting to see how many more Poms go down the John Aldridge/Andy Townsend route. I think I read somewhere that 6 million English people have an least one Irish grandparent, which is roughly one one-ninth of the population, so satistically there's likely to be several who theoretically qualify.
Statistically how many Poms are born in SA? :ph34r:
 

flibbertyjibber

Request Your Custom Title Now!
I think if Ireland got test status now they would have a decent side as they would be able to claim a lot of English county players like Big Jack did for the football team in the 80's and end up with a side capable of giving others a game particularly at home.

Add in the fact that already they would have a decent new ball attack and a good spinner then they would arguably be stronger than Bangladesh already.
 

Prince EWS

Global Moderator
I think if Ireland got test status now they would have a decent side as they would be able to claim a lot of English county players like Big Jack did for the football team in the 80's and end up with a side capable of giving others a game particularly at home.

Add in the fact that already they would have a decent new ball attack and a good spinner then they would arguably be stronger than Bangladesh already.
Johnston, despite being a million years old, is definitely not crap either. Better limited overs bower than Rankin by a long way and if his body could still take the workload I reckon he'd still be fairly close in effectiveness as far as First Class cricket went. He's apparently going to retire shortly but an attack of Murtagh/Rankin/Johnston/Dockrell with backup from the likes of Mooney, Kev and Stirling is a better attack than what Bangladesh can offer by a long way IMO; I'd have to have a think about Zimbabwe and even Sri Lanka as well.

Ideally I'd kind of not like to see this happen; if he'd rather play for England then I don't think he should play for anyone else. International sport shouldn't be a place where you can just change your nationality for an opportunity even if you quality IMO.. but that said, if they're going to lose players like Joyce and Morgan then I will never begrudge them going the reverse to even things up a bit.
 

IrishOpener

U19 Debutant
Johnston, despite being a million years old, is definitely not crap either. Better limited overs bower than Rankin by a long way and if his body could still take the workload I reckon he'd still be fairly close in effectiveness as far as First Class cricket went. He's apparently going to retire shortly but an attack of Murtagh/Rankin/Johnston/Dockrell with backup from the likes of Mooney, Kev and Stirling is a better attack than what Bangladesh can offer by a long way IMO; I'd have to have a think about Zimbabwe and even Sri Lanka as well.

Ideally I'd kind of not like to see this happen; if he'd rather play for England then I don't think he should play for anyone else. International sport shouldn't be a place where you can just change your nationality for an opportunity even if you quality IMO.. but that said, if they're going to lose players like Joyce and Morgan then I will never begrudge them going the reverse to even things up a bit.
Good words Prince, tbh I don't want a lot of players from other countries, but I don't see any problem taking one or maybe two, it helps make up for the loss of Morgan, I don't want to turn this side into a International XI, presently we have 90% of the team from Ireland and I want to keep it that way, as all Internationals sides should try and keep. I think the likes of Johnston is different, he's played and lived in Ireland for 18 years, he's not a fly in. So I'd say he's Irish as the others.

If we could make one more addition and add in Hamish Marshall, mixed with the upcoming youth then I would be very happy, as a side like this could be very competitive against any team IMO,

Porterfield,
Stirling,
Joyce,
Marshall,
Niall O'Brien,
Kevin O'Brien,
Mooney,
Murtagh,
Dockrell,
Rankin/TJ or add in the extra specialist batsman of Cusack,

either way that is a pretty good team I think,

I'm not saying we will @BoyBrumby, but if we did get test status, and set up our first-class system, then you might have a lot of English, Aussies, Kiwi's, etc with Irish heritage wanting to try play FC cricket here, one good thing is throughout the years we Irish got around and left a lot of footprints around the world :laugh:...
 

Howe_zat

Audio File
He's probably in the top 5 county seamers atm.
Not in the slightest. He's a good bowler, and along with Finn & Roland-Jones he forms part of an extremely promising Middlesex attack, but no more than that.
 
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Howe_zat

Audio File
International sport shouldn't be a place where you can just change your nationality for an opportunity even if you quality IMO.. but that said, if they're going to lose players like Joyce and Morgan then I will never begrudge them going the reverse to even things up a bit.
That sounds a bit weird coming from someone who's usually keen to ease up on regulation.
 

IrishOpener

U19 Debutant
You didn't hear it from me, but Ireland are near to confirming that South Africa 'A' will be over for a full series, 2x4-day games, 3 ODI's and 3 T20i's, you can thank our auld coach Adi who stills has contacts in South Africa and does a lot behind the scenes for Ireland, him and big Phil - Legends!...
 

andruid

Cricketer Of The Year
Oh, nice work on the South Africa tour. I hope it's not a high water mark. Anyway, all this Murtagh hullaballoo will be tested soon. Ireland start extensive tour of Kenya in a fortnight. See you all then.
 

andruid

Cricketer Of The Year
Ireland tour to Kenya.

Probably the most high profile Associate v. Associate meeting ahead of the World t20 qualifiers in March. An Intercontinental Cup First class match, 2 ODIs that count to World Cup Qualification, and a T20 series. All games in the high humidity of Mombasa. Ireland the stronger nation over the past 4 year world cup cycle, Kenya seeing the first rays of a new dawn after several years of cycles of player strikes and bad performances. Tikolo, Odoyo and Kamande retired after the world cup and Collins Obuya's only just finding his feet as captain and a senior batsman. Kenya also fresh off a productive tour of India where they crossed 300 2 times, in 50 over games v. Andhra and won the t20 series 6-2 so confidence is higher than has been in a long time. I'm hoping its not a false dawn and this series proves that minnows can deliver a compelling series with decent standard cricket.
 

IrishOpener

U19 Debutant
Ireland win the 2nd ODI by 117 runs with a top knock by Ed Joyce with 88, his avg since his return to Ireland in ODI's is 39.10 or so.

Ireland also won the first of three T20's -

Kenya 107 all out (20.0 overs)
Ireland 109-4 (15.3 overs) Ireland win by 6 wickets :)...
 

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