RevSportz Comment
This has been a long time coming, which seems a funny thing to say about a team that only played its first Test in May 2018, and which clinched its first win in the eighth match it played. India, for example, took 25 games to break their duck, while it took New Zealand 45 Tests. Compared to them, Ireland have got there at Usain Bolt pace.
Yet, the feeling is of a team that international cricket has left behind. Afghanistan, and even the Netherlands, have won plenty of plaudits in recent years, and both pulled off noteworthy upsets in the recent World Cup in India. Ireland’s absence from a stage they graced with distinction in three consecutive World Cups — from 2007 to 2015 — has really hurt them.
Whether they like it or not, any mention of Irish cricket inevitably leads to World Cup flashbacks. The famous victory over Pakistan at Sabina Park in 2007, overshadowed only by Bob Woolmer’s tragic death hours later. The Kevin O’Brien-led heist against England at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore in 2011. A thrashing of once-mighty West Indies in 2015. Irish cricket memories are made of these.
They may have been regulars at the T20 World Cup since 2009, when they reached the Super 8 stage, but that competition has neither the gravitas nor tradition associated with the 50-over event. While qualifying for the T20 World Cup keeps the coffers in decent health, Irish cricket hasn’t been able to attract the kind of bilateral tours or matches that would give it real momentum. It’s glaring that Malahide has hosted just one Test, the inaugural one back in 2018. Each of the seven matches since has been played away from home.
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With teams prioritising the six series that make up each World Test Championship cycle, teams like Ireland will be squeezed even further into the margins. India, for example, will ensure that each cycle has either a home or away series against England and Australia. South Africa remain formidable at home, while West Indies get invites on the basis of nostalgia. Even Bangladesh and Afghanistan, home to millions of passionate cricket fans, get preference over Ireland, where cricket trails way behind a fantastic rugby union side.
It doesn’t help that the names don’t trip off the tongue any more. Afghanistan have Rashid Khan. Ireland once had Eoin Morgan, Ed Joyce and Boyd Rankin, each good enough to eventually play for England. The current vintage has Andy Balbirnie, the skipper, and the pugnacious Paul Stirling. Both are 33, and have been around well over a decade. Andy McBrine, another who was part of that last World Cup adventure in 2015, is 30.
Mark Adair, their gun pace bowler, took 8-95 in the match. The pitch in Abu Dhabi is no bowler’s paradise usually, and those key spells speak of someone whose skill levels are pretty high. But because he doesn’t get to bowl to the Virat Kohlis and Rohit Sharmas of the world, he goes under the radar.
For nearly a decade, Ireland were cricket’s favourite underdog, capable of quite a bite. In recent years, other emerging sides have stolen their thunder. It’s not just Afghanistan and the Netherlands either. Teams like Namibia, Oman, Papua New Guinea, Nepal and Uganda have qualified for the T20 World Cup this summer, and been lauded for their progress.
For Irish cricket to get back to a stage where they are the ‘best of the rest’, they need to ensure that they outperform those nations in North America. It helps that they’ve been grouped with India and Pakistan. For the players, there can be no bigger spotlight or stage. And back in the hemisphere that was the setting for the first big step of their journey, maybe they’ll be able to summon up another Sabina Park.
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