theegyptian
International Vice-Captain
I'm sorry but Joyce has played 15 or so seasons in county cricket. Without county cricket he'd have been stuck playing a poor standard of amateur cricket in Ireland. Exposure to a decent level of regular cricket is massive for a player. It wasn't until 2009 that Ireland became a professional team with contracts for players. They're still without a first class setup. County cricket allowed Rankin, Joyce, Porterfield and others to become professional and improve their game well before they had that option with Ireland.This is a great point. Did Zimbabweans like Andy Flower need English domestic player title in county cricket to succeed? Zimbabwe was a really good team in the 90s and how many of them played as non overseas players in county cricket? They did all right. Training is important but talent is more crucial and once you are at the top, you can self coach a lot of times. Exposure helps, sure, but England didn't make Rankin or Joyce or any thing. They may have improved them a bit but too much a big deal is being made out of it.
To this point it's been mutually beneficial. County cricket has offered something Ireland couldn't with a decent first class setup and job security for players. This has developed a lot of Irish players. England have taken the best of the players when the player wanted to have greater challenges and make more money.
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