Indeed. And had they wished to keep playing as "the subcontinent" or something, there's no reason they shouldn't have. But they didn't, and things became what they are. Such a thing is not remotely likely with The British Isles.
Ok so the subcontinent gets to choose what they want to do but the british isles doesn't?
they Subcontinent choose to play together before the break up and now they choose to be separate. the British Isles choose to play togather but now they choose not to, get it?
It is, as far as I'm concerned. There's no good reason at all to break with 100-odd years of tradition. It's not like ROI, Scotland, England, Wales and NI are at loggerheads and on the verge of nuclear war. There is no good reason why we should not have a united cricket team.
So are you saying the ICC broke the 100 year old traditions? If so why did't it break the 100 year old tradition of the WINDIES?
If geographical proximity is your main argument it's hardly compelling, is it? Some of the bitterest sporting rivalries are local. So no, there isn't every reason for the British Isles to play together. Your only contention seems to be that "it's always been like that".
he just doesn't get it and is ignorant of the fact that geographically ireland is a separated by water from england if he wants to bring geography into it.
Indeed they are - but when Yorkshire and Lancashire players are selected to play for England, they're as one, regardless of local rivalries when reprisenting Yorks and Lancs. There's no reason why Lancastrians and Irishmen should be separate other than "Republic Of Ireland is a separate political nation". Well, Jamaica and Barbados are separate nations too. But they've always played as West Indies. And until this expansion nonsense in 1997, the British Isles always played together without this "residential qualification" crap, even if the name was poorly dubbed "England".
Who knows, maybe we'd have had more Irishmen playing cricket if we'd been called "The British Isles" since 1903. Sadly, MCC didn't have the ability to look forward 90 years.
Here's another one, Ireland want's to be separate, and that it's different nation than England. A "nation" is not the same thing as a country West Indian colonies organized a unified cricket team which vaguely corresponded with the growing sense of nationhood (that ultimately failed when the federation of the colonies collapsed but the team continued as it had before). Yeah so the "expansion nonsense" separated the British Isles but not the Windies?
It isn't really an acceptable
argument though.
I'm open to real and valid reasons why Ireland shouldn't be treated as a separate country in cricketing terms....but as far as I can see, the demarcation between Ireland and England as cricket teams wouldn't have been made if there was no potential for growth in Ireland or no potential for an eventually competitive Irish cricket team.
the only reason is because richard says so
Right, so on the one hand you say it's fine for Pakistan & Bangladesh to play as seperate entities because they wanted to be, but you don't accord the same freedom of choice to Ireland or Scotland who have clearly expressed their wishes to do as such.
&, whilst the ECB might be the English & Welsh Cricket Board, it's an inescapable fact that Wales actually tried to qualify for the first world cup.
yeah seriously I don't think he knows what he's saying
Dire. Do we have to have the same debate in this thread that we've had in about 12 different onces recently? I don't mind if we discuss it further, but the original topic of the thread hasn't simply been evolved from - it was never discussed at all.
Well we went over this 100 times and thought he got it by the last one but some people are just slow or something.
Ignoring whether or not they should be separate - they are. And as it stands, I think this is possibly the worst thing that could happen to Ireland and Scotland in cricketing terms. Really, aiming for admittance to the County Championship should have been the next goal of both these teams but they've basically sold that out in pursuit of money and quick-fix exposure. Really though, it's hardly their fault alone - as people have stated, the ECB are being fairly silly about it as well.
Yeah playing in the county championship is big but trying to get something going in Ireland like get a infrastructure and trying to aim to be semi-pro is bigger. They got the interest now they have to take advantage of it and get money and the exposure to get it started, it's hardly a selling it out. there's other times when 2 international matches are going on together but the ECB just wants a monopoly in Europe. ECB are just being selfish nothing else but selfish.
