BREAKING BOUNDARIES
Ten years on from their famous World Cup win over England, Ireland are in transition but a fresh wave of young talent is offering hope for the future
ALMOST a decade has passed since Irish cricket’s golden generation enjoyed their greatest day. On a monumental March afternoon in Bangalore back in 2011, Kevin O’Brien blasted his way to a swift century – at the time the fastest in World Cup history – to shock England.
There had been plenty of signposts on the long road to full membership of the International Cricket Council, starting with the dramatic scalp of Pakistan at the previous World Cup. But this was the most significant. Beating the old enemy at their own game on the biggest stage. It made the wider sporting community here sit up and take notice at what was going on in Irish cricket.
All that hard work – and lobbying in boardrooms – led to Pakistan arriving in Dublin seven years later as Ireland’s first opponents in a test match. Even the rain failed to spoil that occasion.
Ten years on and there are few links left to that seismic win over England. O’Brien is still there, adding much-needed experience to a young squad. So, too, Paul Stirling, caught by Kevin Pietersen that day in Bangalore.
The talented Belfastman has matured into a world-class batsman, providing the only real bright spots of the recent ODI series against Afghanistan, his two centuries bringing his ODI tally to 12 – an Irish record.
But the sense from what transpired in Abu Dhabi over the past two weeks, as Ireland were whitewashed in three qualifiers for the 2023 World Cup, is they are a side in transition. Irish cricket is moving from one generation to the next, and while they have a capable captain in Andy Balbirnie, perhaps a bump or two had to be expected.
It must be noted that Afghanistan’s rise in international cricket has been heart-warming. From the ashes of its recent war-torn past, they have nurtured some of the best bowlers in the world, such as Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman, who caused Ireland problems in the UAE.
Many of the Afghans had been playing in the Indian Premier League, as high a standard of cricket as there is, which was in stark contrast to almost all of the Irish cricketers, who had not played since beating England in the ODI in Southampton back in August. It was a telling factor.
Wins over the West Indies and England last year suggest there is talent in the next generation, but it will take time for them to bed in. Still, as Richard Holdsworth, Cricket Ireland’s high performance director, points out, it was the youngest Ireland squad he can remember.
‘We had put ourselves in a good position in two of the games to win,’ says Holdsworth. ‘But it was a very young team, more than half the squad of 16 were under 25. I don’t think there has been as young a squad in my nine years with Cricket Ireland, so it shows we are building for the future.
‘Afghanistan have some of the best spin bowlers in the world and some of our players will have never faced conditions like that before and they will only learn from that.’ The best way for those young and inexperienced players to learn is by playing more top-class cricket. And there’s a hectic year ahead for the Irish team.
The Ireland Wolves side are heading to Bangladesh on February 17 for a month-long tour. There’s a tour of Zimbabwe in March. World Cup qualifers against the Netherlands in Amsterdam. Pakistan and South Africa are due here for ODIs and T20s in July. The one thing missing from the packed summer schedule is a Test match. Ireland are down to play one in Sri Lanka in December, 29 months after their last Test match against England. Three years into their full status and their five-day games remain thin on the ground.
Ireland were supposed to play their fourth Test match in Sri Lanka in February of last year, but it was cancelled over confusion about broadcasting.
Three more Tests were planned for 2020, away to Afghanistan and Zimbabwe and home to Bangladesh, but all were cancelled.
With no permanent test venue, hosting a Test match is costly for Ireland. It cost almost €400,000 to construct the temporary facilities in Malahide for Pakistan’s visit. As well as that, Test match hosts must pick up the tab for their opponents – all accommodation, transport and miscellaneous costs. Considering Pakistan stayed in Dublin for 13 days in 2018, it all adds up.
In that light, it is no wonder that Ireland are concentrating on white-ball cricket, rather than the red-ball version.
‘Because funds are restricted, we have to make a choice and decide to concentrate on one or two formats of the game, be competitive at them, rather than be mediocre at all three formats of the game.
‘And there is so much white-ball cricket over the next couple of years, with the T20 World Cup in October and the 50-over World Cup in 2023 – we are going to focus on that,’ explains Holdsworth.
There is hope within Cricket Ireland that they can secure funding to develop a Test venue in Abbotstown – the Irish squad are now based in the Sports Campus for their training – which would make the hosting of matches a little less expensive, but those plans are still some time off completion.
Becoming a full member nation
has also meant that Irish players no longer travel across the Irish Sea to finish their cricketing education with English county side. For the likes of Ed Joyce, Stirling and the O’Brien brothers, their time in county cricket acted as a finishing school as they polished their talent.
When Holdsworth assumed the role of high performance director, there were 12 Irish players in the ranks of English counties. Not any longer.
‘It’s changed times. If a player was good enough to go across and play county cricket, he went. That’s the way it was for years. But we took the decision to go for full membership and one of the consequences is that our players are now based at home.
‘There are advantages. Graham Ford has all the players here, so we can have a lot more training camps and training sessions together.
‘In the past, Phil Simmons would only have his players a couple of nights before, ahead of playing England or Australia in an ODI, which wasn’t ideal.’
And Cricket Ireland have worked to ensure players get more top-class games on a domestic level.
They are trying to develop the inter-provincial structure, with a professional coach now employed in each province.
‘It is going to take time, it won’t happen overnight, but the young talent coming up now will hopefully benefit from that.’ The upcoming tour to Bangladesh is a strategic move too, ensuring that the talented youngsters get a taste of the difficult conditions in the Indian sub-continent before the T20 World Cup in India this October and the 2023 World Cup.
‘It is going to be a tough tour, it always is in Bangladesh,’ Holdsworth says. ‘It will be even tougher now because of the pandemic, and being in lockdown over there. But there are a lot of players who are going to experience conditions on the sub-continent for the first time, the likes of Lorcan Tucker, Harry Tector, Curtis Campher and Josh Little. It will stand them in good stead.’
It’s almost a decade since an Irish cricket team captured our hearts on the Indian sub-continent. There is now a new group taking up the mantle, hoping to build on the foundations set by the golden generation.
‘MORE THAN HALF THE SQUAD OF 16 WAS UNDER THE AGE OF 25’