C+H Sports Discussion Thread

Soooooo Ireland have been basically kicked out of the 2015 cricket world cup. It's being reduced to 10 teams for the 2015 and 2019 w/c with only the 10 Full Members being allowed into the 2015 one in Australia/ New Zealand. No qualifying for it for any associate teame even though Ireland are technically ranked 9th worldwide in ODIs. There will be qualifying of some sort though for 2019 but that's a whole 8 years away!

The reaction hasn't been good to the decision by many people. There's been a whole load of tweets and stuff about it by Irish players, Flintoff, Vaughan and others that I can't remember. And there's been a whole load of articles on it everywhere.

Protectionism much anyone? A lot of the players might have played their last games in the World Cup for Ireland now too either because of retirement (Johnson, O'Brien, etc. or some of the younger players (Dockrell, Stirling )might end up playing for England in w/cs i they can't play for Ireland):(


I actually never thought that I cared so much about cricket until this decision even though I knew it was coming.

amacachi wrote: »

Tis a joke, I'm wondering about the politics behind it because I doubt England/Sky want Ireland out of it, handy market to expand into.

Apparently England voted for the new format(http://www.cricketeurope4.net/DATABASE/ARTICLES4/articles/000007/000720.shtml). I'd say the anyone involved in the current English team's settup would have wanted Ireland to be in it, some of them even supported Ireland and a 12/14 team w/c before the decision but it's whoever their representative at the ICC's meeting and stuff that voted for the changes. Guaranteed matches for England and India mean more revenue for the ICC as they're probably the biggest cricket neations in terms of tv revenue and stuff so thet's really teh main reason behind it: greed.

Ireland beating Pakistan a few years ago and preventing them going to the Super Eights was a commercial disaster for the ICC, I guess this prevents something like that happening again. Disgraceful decision - if they wanted to cut back on numbers I don't see why 12 would've been unreasonable - 2 groups of 6 would've been perfect for the opening round.

I wonder is there another widely played international sport in the world where one country has so much power? I don't watch much cricket but the concentration of money in India seems to have more negatives than positives.

Insect Overlord wrote: »

That Andy Carroll fella...

I think he just might be the real deal! :eek:

Nah we'll see how he does against a top team before we judge him;)

GO on the little pea!

Looks like we'll have to wait another year for a treble:(

sock puppet wrote: »

Leinster look absolutely unstoppable this year and this statement can in no way ever come back to bite me:cool:

I hope to God it doesn't :P. The match against Toulouse will be pretty intense.

Am absolutely delighted right now!!!! Wexford hurlers somehow manage to stay in Division 1. Fantastic :P.

Great to see Dublin in the final too!

deise_girl wrote: »

Also lawl at Wexford, just lawl. I dunno how they did it :P

I genuinely have no idea haha, am still in shock. Was following it online and had basically resigned to them going down. Hopefully I'll catch the highlights of it later. Bit of a turnaround considering how badly they lost to Galway in the first game :P

How would ties have been decided, points difference or head to heads? If it was points difference they would've been safe anyway?

deise_girl wrote: »

Yea I remember that, and then we played yee in the second game and altho only bet yee by a point I think, both teams were kinda dire :P

I think the big thing was yee beating Cork though, like where on earth did that come outta? :L Coz not to belittle yee but I assumed both Wexford and Offaly would kinda lose all their matches and then the winner of Wexford, Offaly would just stay up, which Offaly won but then yee decide to go ahead and beat Cork and draw against Tipp!! :P

Dont cha just love hurling :L

Yeah, to be honest I assumed the same haha, I had pretty much written them off after the first few games - I saw the others in the league as being a good bit better than us and Offaly. I've no idea where they found the ability to get those results from. I'm way more optimistic about The Championship now!

Gotta love the unpredictability of sport!

deise_girl wrote: »

Do you know who Wexford are drawn against in the championship? If you got a nice draw yee'd probably win a few games

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-Ireland_Senior_Hurling_Championship_2011#Leinster_Senior_Hurling_Championship

Antrim/Laois in the quarters, and Kilkenny in the semis. Don't think we'll be getting much further than the semis.

Waterford have a nice enough draw.

Great to see Dublin win for a change
Clare to play Limerick next. Should be interesting. Gwaaan the Banner