Time to plan a few trips

HonalD

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/23114735

great news about the T20 Qualifiers in 2015 and also the re-qualification rule.

Adamcp898

HonalD wrote: »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/23114735

great news about the T20 Qualifiers in 2015 and also the re-qualification rule.

Don't really think the re-qualification rule changes much tbh. Any associate nation player who has ambitions of playing test cricket will still leave and try given the opportunity, it's just a question of if they fail they can return to playing for their associate nation quicker.

It still means the better players will be poached by the bigger teams which is the bigger problem with regards to creating a sustainable team of good quality, not that we can have them back when the big team is done with them.

djimi

I suppose it means that if the likes of Rankin want to try their hand at test cricket it doesnt penalize their home nation for as long in that they can have them back that bit quicker. It was a bit nonsense that we had to do without Ed Joyce for so long while he re-qualified to play for Ireland (when in reality that "qualification" period just meant not playing for 4 years).

Im not really sure what the solution is with regards poaching of players (other than the obvious solution of pulling their head out of their arse and allowing more teams play test cricket). If the ICC turn around and say that once a player plays for any nation, be it test or associate, then they cannot play for another nation, would that mean that young players who might have ambitions of playing test cricket might start to turn around and refuse to play for Ireland at all as they wouldnt want to give up their chance to play tests?

HonalD

Djimi, your last point is interesting. I can only see this as good news. Rankin, for example gets his shot at regular matches with England. When he is thrown by the wayside, he can opt back to us sooner - 4 years is amazing long time for anyone to have to wait.
I wouldn't want the Granny rule or the once yo play, you cannot play for another team. As pointed out, dockroll and Stirling just 2 examples would have been picked for under age English cricket and then couldn't play for us.
I'm happy enough with the current situation except for County Teams nor releasing Irish players for all matches. Obviously, I'd prefer no poaching.

TrueDub

To me it's not good news at all. OK, it makes it easier for associate players to come back - but that just gives more incentive to go in the first place. It's a backward step, not forward.

The only way to stop the leakage is to allow smaller nations play test cricket - a second division of test cricket would allow this.

djimi

I guess its good news in so far as by the looks of things the players are going to go either way, so at least this means we can have them back sooner.

But I completely agree; the best and most obvious solution is to just give countries like Ireland a chance to play test cricket so our best players dont have to leave.

Adamcp898

TrueDub wrote: »

To me it's not good news at all. OK, it makes it easier for associate players to come back - but that just gives more incentive to go in the first place. It's a backward step, not forward.

The only way to stop the leakage is to allow smaller nations play test cricket - a second division of test cricket would allow this.

Ideally that would be it I think but as I've said in another thread I don't feel the ICC are willing to allow another associate team play test cricket for fear of the potential damage the 'nothing' games larger teams would have to play them in could do to the already dwindling interest in test cricket outside of the three major powers.

But a second division would serve a decent purpose, perhaps not even calling it that but just to let the current associate teams play each other in a more structured 5 day first class like tournament with the winner playing a test here and there against test nations (not a full blown series) over the 12-18 months afterwards.

A straight up two tier divisioned approach where one team gets promoted and relegated wouldn't work yet and won't for a long long time because it'd just result in New Zealand/Bangladesh and then an associate nation getting promoted and relegated every year and everyone losing interest.

HonalD

TrueDub wrote: »

The only way to stop the leakage is to allow smaller nations play test cricket - a second division of test cricket would allow this.

Is this not called the intercontinental cup? Realistically, Ireland are far from being in a position to play Test Cricket. We have a superb squad that can play ODIs and T20s and can give teams a scare. This form isn't transferable to Test playing. Round pegs and square holes...

Having said that I would be a proud Irishman to be at our First Test Match.

djimi

HonalD wrote: »

Is this not called the intercontinental cup? Realistically, Ireland are far from being in a position to play Test Cricket. We have a superb squad that can play ODIs and T20s and can give teams a scare. This form isn't transferable to Test playing. Round pegs and square holes...

Having said that I would be a proud Irishman to be at our First Test Match.

Over 5 days I honestly believe we would give the likes of Zimbabwe and Bangladesh a run for their money in a test match. We are probably a long way off beating the likes of Australia and South Africa over 5 days, but we need to be given a chance to get used to the format and improve. It took Bangladesh a long time to look like they had any business playing test cricket.

The Intercontintal Cup is a 4 competition that honestly wont do much for the development of Irish cricket as we are so far ahead of the majority of teams that we play in it. Realistically at this stage we fall somewhere between the other assocaite nations (with the exception of maybe Afghanistan) and the test nations. We arent going to catch up to the teams ahead of us by playing those below us.

Rjd2

djimi wrote: »

It took Bangladesh a long time to look like they had any business playing test cricket.

To be honest its not as if they look like they have any business playing it at the moment either.:P

HonalD

My point is that our players are not accustomed to play 5 day matches. Our skill set is aimed at ODIs and we do well in Intercontinental Cup because we are better than most of the teams.