T20 World Cup Qualifiers

Borders no.2

Great stuff from the lads. Started out a bit edgy in the first few games but we dug out the results and we look to be finding our rhythm now. Goal number 1 has been achieved which is great to have secured. Not its time for Goal number 2, lets go on and win this competition out.

KevIRL

pajor wrote: »

Ireland to play the winner of HK v. Nepal.

Nepal won this and according to Cricinfo they play Afghanistan in the semi final. UAE beat the Netherlands and will play Ireland in the other semi final I believe

Both Nepal and UAE have also qualified for the World Cup after todays results

pajor

KevIRL wrote: »

Nepal won this and according to Cricinfo they play Afghanistan in the semi final. UAE beat the Netherlands and will play Ireland in the other semi final I believe

Both Nepal and UAE have also qualified for the World Cup after todays results

You are indeed right. Wikipedia lied to me last week.

HonalD

pajor wrote: »

You are indeed right. Wikipedia lied to me last week.

Probably not the first time

HonalD

KevIRL wrote: »

Nepal won this and according to Cricinfo they play Afghanistan in the semi final. UAE beat the Netherlands and will play Ireland in the other semi final I believe

Both Nepal and UAE have also qualified for the World Cup after todays results

Delighted for Nepal and UAE. Nice for other associates to get success.

djimi

Its just a shame that the qualifying process is such a shambles and that the likes of Nepal and UAE dont have a fairer crack of getting to the tournament proper.

Borders no.2

Would they not be wiped out against the likes of England, India or Pakistan though? I know the Dutch shocked England before but I believe heavy beatings could do more harm than good for the cause of the associate nations. I think the way it is structured isn't bad. Teams like Nepal will get a shot against for example Afghanistan, Hong Kong and Bangladesh which are games they are unlikely to win but they could win a game or two and build on the progress they have made. If they were in a group with three test playing nations they would be cannon fodder and it could knock them back as well as give ammunition to the people trying to ring-fence the world cups for the big teams. Whereas if Ireland or Afghanistan came through their groups I'd be confident they'd acquit themselves well against the bigger nations (and they'll have competitive matches under their belt) and thereby they'd be in a good position to perform to a high level and advance the cause of the associate nations.

djimi

I guess I just feel that everyone, no matter how small a cricket nation you are, deserves a crack at playing the big boys some of the time. They probably would get annihilated by the top teams, but at least they would get a chance to play them, get their exposure on TV, and they will never improve unless given the chance to play at a higher level.

The problem for the associate nations at the moment is that there is very little incentive to actually kick on, because every step we take is seemingly blocked by a brick wall. Ireland are in a fortunate position at the moment in that we are good enough that if you put us in a qualifying group with Bangladesh/Zimbabwe we might actually come out the other side, and if we get to a tournament then we have enough about us to potentially cause an upset along the way. But if youre a team like Nepal for example, to get to a major tournament you not only have to go through the qualifying tournament, you then have to go through a second phase of qualification from a group where only one of Ireland/Afghanistan and Bangaldesh/Zimbabwe are going to qualify; they must look at it and wonder whats the point.

The ICC seem to have this notion that nobody wants to see the smaller teams compete, and that cricket is only about the top 8/10 nations. While this mentality exists, the sport is never going to grow, and the efforts of countries like Ireland will largely end up going to waste. I dont know how widespread this is among the cricket community in terms of fans etc, but I would like to think that any cricket fan would want to see the game grow as globally as possible, and would like to see more teams rise to the top level rather than watching the same closed shop year after year.

BarryD

djimi wrote: »

I guess I just feel that everyone, no matter how small a cricket nation you are, deserves a crack at playing the big boys some of the time.......... I would like to think that any cricket fan would want to see the game grow as globally as possible, and would like to see more teams rise to the top level rather than watching the same closed shop year after year.

Agree entirely

wicorthered

I think the ICC is the worst governing body in any sport across the world. As long as their boys club India, England, Australia and to a lesser extent South Africa are happy screw the rest of the cricketing world! The amount of roadblocks they've thrown up to associates getting to world cups is incredible.

KevIRL

Game is on sky sports 3 tomorrow at 2pm according to cricket Ireland Facebook

KevIRL

djimi wrote: »

Its just a shame that the qualifying process is such a shambles and that the likes of Nepal and UAE dont have a fairer crack of getting to the tournament proper.

I actually dont mind the 1st round groups, although it should be 2 from each of the groups to go through imo. As it stands its clear the ICC just want Bangladesh and Zimbabwe to go through. 2 getting out of each group would ensure at least 2 associates go through while still allowing 6 associates to be at the finals in some capacity

CorsendonkX

HonalD wrote: »

Delighted for Nepal and UAE. Nice for other associates to get success.

Have the UAE got even one UAE born player on the team? I don't have a problem with 3-4 foreign born players on a team but you run the risk of just importing talent rather than developing it at home. Not a healthy system to sustain a sport.

Good to see Nepal do so well without importing talent on a mass scale.

riffmongous

If only they had maybe put in NZ and West Indies as well instead of just Z & B it might have made the first stage more meaningful for everyone

djimi

KevIRL wrote: »

I actually dont mind the 1st round groups, although it should be 2 from each of the groups to go through imo. As it stands its clear the ICC just want Bangladesh and Zimbabwe to go through. 2 getting out of each group would ensure at least 2 associates go through while still allowing 6 associates to be at the finals in some capacity

I dont really see the need for the second tier of qualifying. What would the harm be to have four groups of four in the main tournament? Okay so there would be a few dud games in the group stage (probably no worse than the football world cup or the Champions League), but it would mean that six associate nations would get games against at least two, and possibly three, test nations, and would exposure from those games being televised.

Its the only way that cricket is going to expand beyond the 8+2 test nations that we currently have.

HonalD

djimi wrote: »

I dont really see the need for the second tier of qualifying. What would the harm be to have four groups of four in the main tournament? Okay so there would be a few dud games in the group stage (probably no worse than the football world cup or the Champions League), but it would mean that six associate nations would get games against at least two, and possibly three, test nations, and would exposure from those games being televised.

Its the only way that cricket is going to expand beyond the 8+2 test nations that we currently have.

I'm definitely in agreement that all qualifiers deserve to play with the big boys. We would never have progressed as quickly if we weren't in the 2007 World Cup proper.

Imagine, Zim and us had to play an extra qualification game. Would Zim probably (?) have beaten us if the winner was to be included in 3 team group. If they did win, we would have had one game and be back home with no progress at all.

I believe that all associates need the exposure and any team at a T20 game can win it - look how close we came to lose games in our group this month.

KevIRL

Ireland batting first. Shaky start. Porterfield out already

KevIRL

Shannon out too. Ireland 30-2 after 4.3

djimi

Sterling gone. 36/3. We are really struggling here.

djimi

Wilson gone. Some very poor cricket being played here by our batsmen. Need to knuckle down and put some sort of a total on the board.

riffmongous

Pity we have our worst performance on tv

KevIRL

Starting to kick on a bit now

Edit too soon. Kev o Brien out

wicorthered

Maybe it's due to the shorter format but Ireland don't look as dominant in T20 cricket compared to 50 over stuff.

If you look at the side, there's a lot of older guys there now. Is it time to refresh the side?

KevIRL

Look at that old man Trent go!

KevIRL

21 off 18th over including 4 boundaries for trent. Massive

KevIRL

Trent out but a brilliant 35 from 18.

140-6 going into last over. Get a couple of boundaries please for a 150,target

djimi

Mooney also out (lovely catch). 150 was looking comfortable a few balls ago, but we will do well to get there now.

KevIRL

Target of 148 is a lot better than it might have been with 3 overs to go

KevIRL

Expensive second over. 15 from it

KevIRL

1st wicket down.