Rankin to retire from Ireland squad to focus on Tests

riffmongous

So as has been suspected Boyd Rankin is planning to retire from the Ireland squad so he can focus on trying to qualify for the english test team

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ireland/content/current/story/576369.html

I know Dooferoaks mentioned it in the irish layers in england thread but i reckon it deserves its own thread. I cant imagine Rankin ever being a regular on the English test team and I wonder if he was just pushed into this by Warwickshire as part of his new contact with them.

So if he is set to retire next December should he be selected for the 20/20 WC? Personally I dont think he should, he doesnt deserve the chance after putting Ireland at the bottom of his prioirty list (as he said himself).

HonalD

He has been a great servant to Ireland and i'd imagine its the amount of games he has to play for the Lions as well as for us and his club.

I can't praise him enough, he has been incredible with TJ opening the bowling. Best of luck.

Rascasse

riffmongous wrote: »

So if he is set to retire next December should he be selected for the 20/20 WC? Personally I dont think he should, he doesnt deserve the chance after putting Ireland at the bottom of his prioirty list (as he said himself).

I couldn't disagree more. You field your strongest side and if he's fit he goes. Also, just because he's retiring now doesn't undo his past service.

Like you I don't understand the England test reason for retiring. It was reported that Warks wanted him to quit Ireland before signing a new contract as he kept coming back from international duties injured. To me that would appear to be the real reason rather than some possible test call up (when is he even eligible?).

Dozen Wicked Words

Ireland have become victims of their own success. Very difficult for Ireland to ever plan for the future with continual loss of their better players. Until the ICC change the rules, it will continue to happen, and they will have to plan with one hand tied behind their back.

TheDrog

I would want to see him in the side, every result matters for Ireland at this stage and playing anyone else is playing a weaker player. We want to be at full strength not proving a point

Rjd2

Rascasse wrote: »

I couldn't disagree more. You field your strongest side and if he's fit he goes. Also, just because he's retiring now doesn't undo his past service.

Like you I don't understand the England test reason for retiring. It was reported that Warks wanted him to quit Ireland before signing a new contract as he kept coming back from international duties injured. To me that would appear to be the real reason rather than some possible test call up (when is he even eligible?).

Aye, when you consider the likes of Onions, Woakes and Meaker don't even get a look in, I doubt he has much to offer England.

HonalD

I'm not convinced that he will play test match cricket. As suspected, he was offered a contract that included retiring from Ireland duties.

Rascasse

I wonder if the offer from Somerset would have allowed him to continue with Ireland?

I must say though, if he has retired due to Warks contractual demands, it is pretty poor form from him and Ireland to blame ECB (talent poachers) & ICC (no test status).

djimi

TheDrog wrote: »

I would want to see him in the side, every result matters for Ireland at this stage and playing anyone else is playing a weaker player. We want to be at full strength not proving a point

Exactly. I dont see why the rest of the squad, and cricket in Ireland in general, should suffer because of his decision.

djimi

Rascasse wrote: »

I wonder if the offer from Somerset would have allowed him to continue with Ireland?

I must say though, if he has retired due to Warks contractual demands, it is pretty poor form from him and Ireland to blame ECB (talent poachers) & ICC (no test status).

Rjd2 wrote: »

Aye, when you consider the likes of Onions, Woakes and Meaker don't even get a look in, I doubt he has much to offer England.

With all due respect to Rankin I could see the same happen to him as happened to Joyce; declare for England, play a few ODIs, not get near the test team. If a desire to play test cricket is behind his decision then I hope he has thought long and hard about it, and what he is risking in the process, because its a mighty foolish decision to give up a career with Ireland and hurt our squad for the sake of playing a couple of games for England. And they would pick him for a couple of games and not give a hoot about the consequences for us.

I think as has been said its more likely that Warwickshire are influencing his decision more than anything. Giles was pissed at the start of the season when Rankin and Woakes were injured and ended up missing a chunk of games, and comments he made at the time strongly suggested that he was going to make a big effort to reduce Rankins international workload.

Football Gambler

I follow Warwickshire and it is a pretty open secret here that the County put pressure on him to retire from playing for Ireland, there were lots of rumours doing the rounds that he wouldn't get a new contract unless he agreed to retire. I don't think the rumours came out of thin air.

Personally I don't agree with it, I think the County are out of order forcing him to do that. It's the old scenario of looking after themselves though, to the detriment of the better of the game as a whole.

Couldn't see Rankin getting a test call up, but now that Giles is an charge of England limited overs sides, he might have a chance there.

djimi

Despite being a Warwickshire fan I am in no way excusing them if indeed they have told Rankin to give up playing for Ireland. But the whole situation is just part of a big issue for county cricket with regards international callups. Counties by and large get dumped on by England on a regular basis; their best players get an international call up and are not seen again for more then a couple of games over the course of the summer. When it comes to test cricket they have no say over this, but with the case of associates I presume they have a lot more power and are not afraid to use it. So you get a situation like this where Warwickshire are able to say to a player like Rankin that if he wants to continue playing fully professional cricket he must cut back on his international duties. Sadly not too many cricketers will be in a position to choose playing for Ireland over playing for their county if they wish to continue to make a living from the game.

Of course, its entirely possible that Rankin also feels he might get a shot at test cricket (which he doesnt have to give up playing for Ireland to do; not until he is actually selected anyway...). I just hope that he knows what this means and what he will be giving up, if indeed this is the case.

TheDrog

On a similar note to this Niall O'Brien recently said that a few county sides offered him deals which were conditional on him retiring, this is irish crickets future until we have our own first class system.

Football Gambler

TheDrog wrote: »

On a similar note to this Niall O'Brien recently said that a few county sides offered him deals which were conditional on him retiring, this is irish crickets future until we have our own first class system.

Only other outcome could be that they get subsidised/central contracts from the Board like I believe you do in Rugby Union in Ireland (is this correct?).

That way Ireland have more chance of keeping their players and counties may be able to pick the players up slightly cheaper, as they would only be topping up the central contracts payments..... and if the counties are getting players on the cheap, they wouldn't be in a position to pressure them to stop playing for Ireland.

I know Irish cricket board probably can't afford this, so maybe this is where ICC could/should step in, if they are serious about developing the game in more countries (and that is a debate in itself).

HonalD

Rankin is selected to face Essex I think. Great news for him and inclusion in Ashes series hopefully.

Dozen Wicked Words

Playing today, took a wicket in first over, getting a bit of stick from the Kiwis, but so is everyone else.

Actually, the pick of them so far.

djimi

Wicket ball was an absolute peach. He hasnt bowled badly; was unlucky with the drop (from a difficult chance to be fair) by Bopara at square leg, and the six from McCullum that flew back over his head could have gone anywhere. He has overall looked dangerous with the slightly short pitched bouncy bowling.

riffmongous

4 overs with 1-24 is pretty good when your team concedes 200 in total, nice job

djimi

Even better when you consider 12 of those came from 2 balls.

Cavehill Red

It's an ongoing disgrace a) that Ireland are not a test match nation yet and b) that because they aren't, a completely different nation can claim to call on our players.
Until that is rectified, the popularity of cricket in Ireland will remain limited. What young kid wants to cheer on the likes of Eoin Morgan for Ireland only to see him tog out for England a few weeks later?

djimi

Cavehill Red wrote: »

It's an ongoing disgrace a) that Ireland are not a test match nation yet and b) that because they aren't, a completely different nation can claim to call on our players.
Until that is rectified, the popularity of cricket in Ireland will remain limited. What young kid wants to cheer on the likes of Eoin Morgan for Ireland only to see him tog out for England a few weeks later?

Ive gotten to the point where I have given up complaining about it. The ICC have absolutely no interest in developing the associate nations and expanding test cricket; as far as Im concerned Ireland's performances in the last few years have given us every bit of a right to play test cricket as the likes of Bangladesh or Zimbabwe.

At least guys like Morgan and Rankin are making people sit up and ask the question of why this is happening; that good Irish players are being forced to leave when the Irish team is so prominant at the moment.

feargale

Dozen Wicked Words wrote: »

Ireland have become victims of their own success. Very difficult for Ireland to ever plan for the future with continual loss of their better players. Until the ICC change the rules, it will continue to happen, and they will have to plan with one hand tied behind their back.

What kind of sporting body encourages this gallowglass behaviour? Any sports administrators worth their salt would want to spread the gospel, particularly in a sport played by a small number of countries.

Cavehill Red

djimi wrote: »

Ive gotten to the point where I have given up complaining about it. The ICC have absolutely no interest in developing the associate nations and expanding test cricket; as far as Im concerned Ireland's performances in the last few years have given us every bit of a right to play test cricket as the likes of Bangladesh or Zimbabwe.

Ireland to my mind are demonstrably superior to Zim and likely better than Bangladesh. The only reason for this ongoing farce is because, frankly, Irish players are propping up the English international squad, and as long as England can cherrypick our players, their sway over the ICC will insure nothing will change.
I believe that the only way to force the hand of the ICC would be either for Ireland to propose that their players be available for ANY test nation in order to obtain experience, or simply for all Irish players to boycott England.

riffmongous

feargale wrote: »

What kind of sporting body encourages this gallowglass behaviour? Any sports administrators worth their salt would want to spread the gospel, particularly in a sport played by a small number of countries.

You would think so but unfortunately cricket has some of the worst administrators to ever be involved in sport. Most of it just comes down to money though, India is a huge market, when you think of it the population of India increased by around 180 million the last 10 years, in a country where cricket is a huge deal.. Ireland's total population is 4 million and cricket doesnt even make the news round up

Cavehill Red

riffmongous wrote: »

cricket doesnt even make the news round up

In fairness, neither does Irish soccer. But that's another debate for another day. It isn't media coverage or lack thereof that prevents the ICC from granting Ireland test status.

riffmongous

Cavehill Red wrote: »

In fairness, neither does Irish soccer. But that's another debate for another day. It isn't media coverage or lack thereof that prevents the ICC from granting Ireland test status.

No it doesn|t prevent it, but I think if there was more coverage and then leading on to more money going with Irish cricket the other countries would be more open to giving Ireland test status.

On a political level, I wonder has it ever occurred to Cricket Ireland to try to get better ties with India and then try to replace Zimbabwe as an indian ally on votes, as that seems to be the only purpose ZC has served the last few years

Cavehill Red

That would be one method. But I think what's needed is a rule preventing test nations from choosing players from associate nations. India might back that, as it's fairly obvious it would really only affect one squad.

djimi

What might prevent this from happening is if the rules were changed so that qualification was the same for all countries, ie any player wishing to play for another country must serve out their qualification period without playing for their home nation (as opposed to the current system where players from associate countries can qualify while still playing for their home nation). You might argue that it would mean that countries like Ireland would lose the likes of Morgan or Rankin for four years that they would otherwise have them if they are serious enough about playing test cricket, but it also might make players think twice if it means going four years without any international cricket. Depends what age they are and how serious I guess; it would most likely have put Rankin off but if someone like Dockrell wants to play test cricket then he would have time on his side.

The other solution (which would make the most sense really) is just do as they do in football and say that once you play for any country at international level then you cannot change to play for another country.

Adamcp898

djimi wrote: »

Ive gotten to the point where I have given up complaining about it. The ICC have absolutely no interest in developing the associate nations and expanding test cricket; as far as Im concerned Ireland's performances in the last few years have given us every bit of a right to play test cricket as the likes of Bangladesh or Zimbabwe.

At least guys like Morgan and Rankin are making people sit up and ask the question of why this is happening; that good Irish players are being forced to leave when the Irish team is so prominant at the moment.

This tbh, although I think part of the reason is they are trying to semi-save test cricket as outside of England/Aus/India there doesn't appear to be the same appetite for it anymore.

They need to rejuvenate it and just get the likes of day/night tests underway already as until it shows true regrowth I think they're afraid of allowing more associate nations in simply because of the prospect of having to get big teams to play a handful of tests against them every year, thus doing test cricket more damage due to the comparative lack of interest their would be in those games as opposed to just scheduling the big test nations to play each other again.

schemingbohemia

2 of "our" players were playing for England last night, having been developed initially in this country. Should Stirling and Dockrell get called up, which could well happen in the next couple of years, then there could possibly be 4 Irish players playing for England.
It wasn't so bad when it was 1 player per generation getting called up by England but given the increasing quality of Irish players it should be looked at properly by the ICC.

D3PO

guys this has been done to death to be honest. The whole Kolpak thing and subsidies to county teams for playing English qualified players also play a huge part in this. It wont change the ICC have no appetite to change it.

All we can do is keep producing this top class talent, keep improving the player numbers and the domestic structures of the game here and force the ICC's hand eventually.