Ireland: National team redemption as Irish cricket considers domestic structure

The 2001 season has come to an end, with some encouragement for the Irish team after the disaster in Toronto. They have played the first two rounds of the 2002 Cheltenham & Gloucester trophy and have qualified to play in the Third round next year. We have been drawn against Nottinghamshire at home. The rules of the competition effectively ensured a home draw against a first class county.

Both matches were won from unpromising beginnings. In each case Ireland batted first and lost early wickets before they had reached 100. Solid later partnerships eventually enable Ireland to finish with a total in excess of 200, totals that they proved capable this time of defending. Against Wiltshire in the first round the rescuers were Dominick Joyce and Peter Gillespie and in the second round against Hampshire County Board it was Andre Botha (our overseas player for this year) and Derek Heasley who saw us to what turned out to be a successful score.

The team showed some changes from that which played in Toronto. Apart from Andre Botha, Jordan McGonigle, a 19 year old Slow Left Armer came into the side, as did Conor Armstrong in the Wiltshire game. There was also a change in captain with Jason Molins replacing Kyle McCallan. Kyle was unavailable for the first game and when he was available again the Selectors decided to stick with Jason. Whether Jason will continue in that role next year is a major question as given that he is living and working in the UK, and has heavy work commitments, his availability could be a key issue in deciding if he will continue as captain.

Ireland are now looking for a new coach. Ken Rutherford decided that he would not seek an extension of his contract. Accordingly the Irish Cricket Union is now looking for a new Coach. This appointment, when made, will be looked at with great interest as he has a lot of work to do. Whether it will be a home based person or whether they will go abroad again is but one of the key questions to be answered.

The other key issue the Union has to look at is the future structure of Irish Cricket. There seems to be an acceptance on all sides that something has to be done to provide a higher level of competition for the better players. There are too many matches at club level in all the Unions where the better players can perhaps "coast" by virtue of the level of the opposition. This makes it difficult for them to raise their game when they reach the international level. With the European Championships in Ireland next year there is a need to do all we can to expose them more often to a higher grade of cricket, without at the same time damaging the club cricket that is still the heartblood of our game.

While no decision have yet been made, and a working party is looking at the options, the two most realistic ones are an expanded Interprovincial Championship or an Irish Senior League, involving teams from all the Unions. The Senior League is perhaps the more difficult option to bring in, certainly anyway quickly, as there are a large number of practical issues to be dealt with. Also, as the Irish players are spread across a wide range of clubs, a Senior League might not involve them all, unless they were to move clubs, not something that would find favour in a game largely based on the club structure.

I would guess, therefore, that the most likely outcome will be a greater number of games at an Inter Union level. This has to be fitted in with the club commitments and also to ensure that all the games are played before the Irish Selectors have picked their last team for the season - there is little point in dead games where the players have no immediate objective to look forward to. If this is what transpires it will undoubtedly have some impact on club cricket as in the length of our season players cannot play the 20 plus games they presently play at club level, plus perhaps as many as 8 games at Interprovincial level as well as international calls without running the risk of being worn out before the end of the season. There is a limit to the number of times a player can play on both days of the weekend. Also it has to be remembered that the majority of club players will not be involved in this structure and their season cannot be totally disrupted to provide for this. All in all some clubs will have to live with the fact that they will not have their International players available for all the games they would want them for.

Another issue that has been causing much debate, particularly in the Leinster area, is the number of players appearing for different clubs who are not qualified under ICC rules to play for Ireland. These overseas players, as they are known, having been having a very significant influence on our club cricket. As an example of the 23 players who qualified for the batting cup in Leinster this year, only 6 are qualified to play for Ireland, and three of those filled the last three places. At the same time, Ireland, particularly in the southern area, has a very open economy and we have had over the past few years a large number of non-Irish people coming here to work and live. I believe it is wrong to create restrictions on such persons playing cricket. The key that I believe we need to deal with is the issue of the number of people who come in simply to play cricket during the summer, and then leave when that period is over. It is these types of people I consider we should be seeking to restrict.

In the season just past no distinction was made and there was simply a rule that no club could play more than 4 people who were not qualified to represent Ireland under ICC rules. I think this was a wrong way to approach it. It made no distinction between the person living and working here for say the past 3/4 years and the person brought in simply for the season. I believe therefore we should be looking at limiting the "summer only" people to perhaps one, the traditional "Pro", or at most two, and no restrictions being applied to those permanently living here.

In terms of the local competitions, North County was certainly the team of the season in Leinster. They won their first Leinster trophy when the won the Lewis Traub league, the fist of the season's competitions. They went very close to winning the Whitney Moore & Keller Senior League but eventually lost out when they lost their last match of the season. They ran into a large fixture backlog and at one stage found themselves playing 5 games in 8 days, all of which they had to win. However, they did carry off the big one when they became only the second Leinster team to win the Irish Senior Cup, beating Cliftonville in Belfast. The other winners were Merrion in the Senior League, their first win in that competition since the later 1950's and YMCA in the Senior Cup. However, it was very much a mixed season for YM as they were relegated to Section B in the Senior League, thus ending their proud tradition as the only team in Leinster that had never been in that section.

The Northern Cricket Union team of the season was undoubtedly North Down who won the League and Cup double. They were pushed hard, as usual, by Waringstown and Cliftonville were also there or thereabouts. However, they found themselves in fixture congestion at the end of the season, perhaps to a large extent because they played little or no cricket while the Irish team was in Toronto because they had three players in the squad.

The North West Senior League ended in a tie with a play off being necessary between Brigade and Donemana. Donemana, who had already won the Senior Cup, were going for the double. However, in the play off they were thwarted by Brigade who won by 75 runs. The North West League had been reduced to 8 teams but there is a movement there to bring this back up to ten, with various suggestions being put forward as to how this might be achieved. A case of watch this space.

Finally in the Munster Union Cork County did the League and Cup double. In the Cup they had an extremely tight victory over Harlequins, with one run separating the two sides. While there are still two games left in the League, Cork County cannot be caught and it seems almost certain that Harlequins will end up runners up in that also, though with two games to go UCC could end up level with Harlequins if they win both their games and get maximum points. Given that one of those games is against Cork County to achieve maximum points seems extremely unlikely.