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Should Wales and Northern Ireland have separate cricket teams?

T

The Hillside

School Boy/Girl Cricketer
Technically if Scotland has a separate cricket team of their own since 1994, it should make sense for Wales and Northern Ireland to have separate cricket teams of their own, just like we have in football.

I might not be saying that few years ago, but now with so many cricket teams on international level, it is a possibility.
 
Chubb

Chubb

International Regular
Northern Ireland will never have a separate team. The situation in football is an anomaly. In rugby, cricket and hockey the teams represent the whole island. That's why they don't use the Republic's flag and sing Ireland's Call instead of the ROI anthem.

21 years ago a Wales team beat England in a one-day warmup. But generally Glamorgan market themselves as the Welsh national team and they do bring a lot of Welsh players through. I get the impression Glam would prefer the status quo to having a Wales team and without their support it won't happen.

There is the Wales Minor Counties team which plays in the level below first-class cricket.
 
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T

The Hillside

School Boy/Girl Cricketer
Chubb said:
Northern Ireland will never have a separate team. The situation in football is an anomaly. In rugby, cricket and hockey the teams represent the whole island. That's why they don't use the Republic's flag and sing Ireland's Call instead of the ROI anthem.

About 20 years ago a Wales team beat England in a one-day warmup. But generally Glamorgan market themselves as the Welsh national team and they do bring a lot of Welsh players through.
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Ok. But then why is Scotland an exception?
 
Chubb

Chubb

International Regular
The Hillside said:
Ok. But then why is Scotland an exception?
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The England team represents the England and Wales Cricket Board. Scotland has always had a separate cricket board and a national team. It's a historical anomaly but it's basically the reason why Glamorgan are a first class county and, say, Midlothian isn't.
 
Prince EWS

Prince EWS

Global Moderator
HeathDavisSpeed said:
I thought Northern Irish were eligible to play for Ireland anyway. Is that not the case?
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They are, OP wants to split them up.

Would be silly IMO. Works fine as it is and Ireland aren't nearly strong enough to split up further.

Wales would probably be a Namibia-standard associate side which would be nice to have but there'd be a bit of a cap on how good their players could get before being enticed to play in England - even more so than what happens with Scotland and Ireland already.
 
HeathDavisSpeed

HeathDavisSpeed

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Chubb said:
Yes Paul Stirling is an Ulsterman. There are some others as well but he's the best known.
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I was thinking of Adrian McCoubrey who I know was from Northern Ireland but I don’t think ever played for Ireland. Though a cursory look at his Wikipedia page suggests that he played for them at U-19 level.
 
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W

WICFan

State 12th Man
For those that don't know, Jack Carson is from Craigavon and he's been called up for the England Lions.

Boyd Rankin had a rather fleeting England career and there has been others over the years from Northern Ireland like Will Porterfield, Gary Wilson, Mark Adair who have all played county cricket and represented Ireland.
 
Neil Young

Neil Young

State Vice-Captain
Chubb said:
Northern Ireland will never have a separate team. The situation in football is an anomaly. In rugby, cricket and hockey the teams represent the whole island. That's why they don't use the Republic's flag and sing Ireland's Call instead of the ROI anthem.

21 years ago a Wales team beat England in a one-day warmup. But generally Glamorgan market themselves as the Welsh national team and they do bring a lot of Welsh players through. I get the impression Glam would prefer the status quo to having a Wales team and without their support it won't happen.

There is the Wales Minor Counties team which plays in the level below first-class cricket.
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A bloke named Jacques Kallis played for Wales that day.

What a coincidence.
 
Y

Yeoman

U19 Captain
As with many things, Wales not having a team is due to a combination of historical precedent and money.

If we imagine that Glamorgan had never become a first class county, but Midlothian had, I think that it would be likely that today we would have a separateWales team but England and Scotland combined. As time went by and Glamorgan became integrated into the England system, and reliant on central funding to continue as a professional entity, a break away became unlikely because of the vested interests involved. If Wales were to go it alone today there would be no more ECB central payment or England fixtures to keep Glamorgan going and Welsh cricket would likely settle at a similar level to Scotlands. The powers that be within Welsh cricket evidently prefer to remain an effective subsidiary of England on economic grounds.
 
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