Ireland Fans Society

[Athlai]

My huge concern if Ireland got Test status would be the number of heritage players who would be recruited or throw their lot in with the Irish and that high proportion of locally produced talent would fall dramatically.

6 Irishmen playing tests is more than 0.

 

[ImpatientLime]

Been a fan of them since 2007 tbh. Even gonna hold a St Patrick's day party this year.

plastic paddys, truly some of the worst people in the world.

 

[cnerd123]

If it helps it wont even be on St Patrick's day because that's a Tuesday. And I'll be insisting all guests wear green and/or orange.

 

[luckyeddie]

I'm in.

Is there beer?

 

[cpr]

I'm sure my rather Irish family would be huge fans if they gave a **** about cricket. Not enough violence for them, though are fans of the drinks break....

 

[fishyguy]

I was thinkin if theres anyway to have local regional irish teams and the English county teams play together to improve the standard for Irish cricket. Wouldve been interesting to see Ireland with a fit and in form Boyd rankin and Eoin Morgan. One thing I do worry is where the next crop of Irish players are gonna come from. The current side have been around for a very long time. Don't know of any up and coming Irish talent specially in the fast bowling department. With the right amount of funding and infrastructure ireland could become like New Zealand. Small population of only about 4-5 million but a lot of talnet and heart.

 

[cpr]

Ireland used to play in the B&H cup years back, but then they were about the level of a top Minor Counties side

To play in the English league would go against the ICC's desire for a strong domestic competition for its full members. Ideally they need to build on the Inter-Provincial Cup to include most, if not all, regions/counties, possibly following an Australian model for the first class cricket. The other alternative would be to try and work with Scotland on a joint domestic league, but that might not appease the ICC.

One thing to remember is theres a rather strong tradition in Ireland of opposing 'British' sports and protecting Gaelic ones, even football and Rugby have fallen foul at times, so cricket is very unlikely to be taken to heart as much as it is in somewhere like New Zealand.

 

[Uppercut]

One thing to remember is theres a rather strong tradition in Ireland of opposing 'British' sports and protecting Gaelic ones, even football and Rugby have fallen foul at times, so cricket is very unlikely to be taken to heart as much as it is in somewhere like New Zealand.

This is an interesting point, so I'll rant about it. I don't think political Gaelic protectionism is a problem for cricket, as it is for rugby and football. What we see there is a blanket refusal of the GAA (ICC equivalent for Gaelic sports) to co-operate with other sports. So matches are organised purposely to clash with the football/rugby schedules, they aren't allowed access to Gaelic facilities, they have to compete for government funding even in cases where a sharing arrangement would make a lot more sense.

Cricket wouldn't have much use for Gaelic facilities anyway, but more importantly, there's very little overlap between cricketers and Gaelic footballers/hurlers. Cricket has two strongholds: Northern Protestants, and the big, mostly-urban grammar schools, neither of whom are at all big on Gaelic sports. Outside of these strongholds, cricket can't compete anyway, regardless of the cross-sport politics. At best we could reach something like in England, where it's a sport played by a reasonably-sized niche, mostly consisting of rich people.

The second layer is cultural opposition to British sports. This is more serious. A decent chunk of Irish culture is defined in opposition to the English class system, which permeates cricketing culture to an embarrassing degree. Playing like a gentleman is not something Irish people aspire to. So it's not a very well-respected sport- to a lot of people, you're a posh tw*t for having any interest in it. Or you're boring.

What I would hope to see is the growth of our own cricketing counter-culture; a distinctive way of playing the game that openly rejects the stereotypical English way. We saw that with the West Indies, and to a lesser extent with Australia. A problem with this might be that so many of those who play cricket in Ireland are culturally quite close to England. But I still think it's possible. Beating England at the World Cup when our fat ginger Dubliner scored a century without playing a single "proper" cricket shot- that helps a lot.

 

[Migara]

Ireland, Afghanisthan and perhaps Netherlands can play in Pakistan / UAE during the IPL season. It could have some ODIs with Pakistan side and "Tests" against Pakistan A, which should be a very competitive side. And may be these sides pay a vist to SL and play a series here with SL sans big boys which will benefit both parties. I can easily name a competitive SL side without IPL players like Sanga, Mahela, Mathews, Thisara, Malinga and Senanayake.

 

[Flem274*]

The main problem with Ireland becoming a test nation which has been raised in the past by marc and others is they've become parasitic on the County system for developing their players, and if they became a test nation many of them would be booted due to their new overseas status and England not wanting to take responsibility for helping the enemy. England has had some gains out of the relationship as well, but it's not one that would continue after test status was granted.

I wouldn't mind Ireland losing their free ride if they were given test status but only on the condition the ICC stops actively trying to wreck the minnows and invests in Irish cricket properly. There is no reason they can't become competent and frankly with the West Indian political situation, Zimbabwe political situation, Pakistan unable to play home games in Pakistan and New Zealand and Bangladesh being historically dire, cricket needs to expand to ensure it's survival.

If Ireland were given the chance to tour the world playing against FC and A sides, and aided in further developing their domestic system then they would have a good chance of compensating for the lack of County cricket. West Indies, New Zealand and Zimbabwe before they went to hell have shown what tiny countries/groups of countries can do given the chance. I'd love to have them down here for an ODI series and a big domestic tour. It'd be fun.

I don't know the ins and outs of cricket in Irish culture like Uppercut does, but for a minority sport without full member status to produce the talent it has shows Ireland are capable.

Plus the separation from County cricket would prevent more Morgan, Joyce and Rankin situations which place a limit on how good Ireland can get. If the ICC had their **** together in 2007 Ireland would be even better than they are now. Sadly though we know the ICC only care about three teams and one of those teams benefits from Irish players so...

 

[cnerd123]

All this speculation and these ideas are so depressing knowing the ICC doesn't give a **** about developing cricket to begin with anyways.

We should all quit our jobs and start working in cricket administration and maybe 30 years down the road one of us will be ICC president and we can save cricket.

 

[Swingpanzee]

All this speculation and these ideas are so depressing knowing the ICC doesn't give a **** about developing cricket to begin with anyways.

We should all quit our jobs and start working in cricket administration and maybe 30 years down the road one of us will be ICC president and we can save cricket.

I hope it's Dawood Ahmad.

 

[Prince EWS]

I hope it's Cabinet96.

 

[Zinzan]

Top thread. Surely my new avatar automatically qualifies me for this society.

 

[Athlai]

The Irish don't even know what American football is.

 

[OverratedSanity]

I hope it's Dawood Ahmad.

I hope it's Cabinet96.

lokomotiv, surely

 

[GIMH]

Re flem's post. I said this last time it came up and I'm not sure if it was resolved but EU law as I understand means we cannot treat Irish players as overseas players.

However Brumby did point out that we have failed to allow players such as Ryan Harris despite them holding a British passport so it could be that there is a way round it that I am unaware of.

 

[Antihippy]

What I would hope to see is the growth of our own cricketing counter-culture; a distinctive way of playing the game that openly rejects the stereotypical English way. We saw that with the West Indies, and to a lesser extent with Australia. A problem with this might be that so many of those who play cricket in Ireland are culturally quite close to England. But I still think it's possible. Beating England at the World Cup when our fat ginger Dubliner scored a century without playing a single "proper" cricket shot- that helps a lot.

Uh, I don't know why it's to a lesser extent for australia. Feels like both cricketing cultures are the opposites for decades.

Certainly haven't heard anyone called the australian players gentlemen for awhile now.

 

[Zinzan]

The Irish don't even know what American football is.

How dare you..

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Ronan McDonald

that's some evil parents