Lot of Irish players wrong side of 30 sadly, so many of those who played today were there when Ireland beat Pakistan in 2007. There will need to be a review of the performances here especially today where they seemed to be no sort of plan whatsoever.
I do fear looking at the ages of the players and how irrelevant the sport is in Ireland was the last few years the pinnacle of Irish cricket, will they in a few years time be as irrelevant as Kenya?
A few tests here and there won't spark interest in the sport and won't magically discover some players who could replace the stalwarts.
Read somewhere that Stirling was considering England. I doubt that would happen as ultimately he is not good enough to get into the limited overs sides whatsoever. However if somehow England were to make it happen,,,,grim times.
Ever remember the George Dockrell hype for England ? I actually really liked him. Weird how things went at Somerset.
One of the great things about Afghanistan and Ireland has been that they are actually producing cricketers born and bred.
Much of Zimbabwe's problems going forward will be their domestic system being a piece of **** and a lot of their talented players not even based in the country because producing their own wasn't a problem.
Ireland and Afghanistan have the opportunity to push forward but I do hear your point about Ireland. At least with Afghanistan we've now seen their future shine in an u19 WC this year.
Ireland u19 squad 2018 (Where will these guys be ?)
Harry Tector (19) - Named their World Cup star by the ICC (Munster Reds)
Neil Rock
Jamie Grassi (20) (Munster Reds)
Morgan Topping (Northern Knights)
Jonathan Garth
Joshua Little (19) - debuted for Ireland already (Leinster)
Aaron Cawley (19) (Munster Reds)
Max Neville (18) (Munster Reds)
Graham Kennedy (19) (North West)
Ireland u19 WC squad 2016
No one from this WC is in the Current Irish squad when you should see 1 or 2. Although H.Tector and Little were here before 2018.
You look at their senior core players
William Porterfield (34) - Signed for Gloucestershire when 24
Ed Joyce (40) - Signed for Middlesex when 21
Niall O'Brien (37) - Signed for Kent when 23
Kevin O'Brien (34) - Signed for Notts when 25
Gary Wilson (32) - Signed for Surrey when 22
Boyd Rankin (34) - Signed for Derbyshire when 22
*Eoin Morgan (32) - Signed for Middlesex when 20
** Not including the nearly 40 Tim Murtagh
These guys played under Trent Johnston
The Rest ? - Not exactly inspiring apart from the two Weldone mentioned.
Paul Stirling (28) - Signed for Middlesex when 20
Andrew Balbirnie (28) - Signed for Middlesex when 21
Simi Singh (31)
Andy McBrine (25)
Barry McCarthy (26) - Signed for Durham when 24
Peter Chase (25) - Been signed and released by Durham
George Dockrell (26) - Signed by Somerset when 18 but been released in 2015
James Shannon (28)