There is nobody in English cricket quite like Eoin Morgan, When on form, his ability to pick the gaps and clear the boundaries is second to no-one in the country. He is seen as being absolutely vital to English one-day fortunes, and I see little to disprove the sentiment. He has also played sixteen Tests, an opportunity that he would never have had playing for the country of his birth. Ed Joyce, when he was playing for England over half a decade ago, was one of many top-order batsmen pushing for a limited-overs spot as part of the merry-go-round selection policy. Also pushing for that place were Andrew Strauss, puzzlingly batting at three, Vikram Solanki, Jonathan Trott and Mal Loye. Ed Joyce was certainly not irreplaceable. Boyd Rankin is currently vying with fellow lanky seamers Chris Tremlett, Steven Finn and Stuart Broad for England places; he is impressing, but he is hardly at the front of the queue. In a few years, Reece Topley will have Rankin's height and pace, and a left-arm-over angle. As much as they might like him, England do not need him.
While England pick Irishmen they do not expressly need, after Boyd Rankin is essentially blackmailed into retiring from Irish cricket by the heir-apparent England coach, Ireland keep on developing young players. Paul Stirling and George Dockrell are both on the English radar, even if they are not ready for duty quite yet. It is almost as if Ireland is an EPP team.
Boyd Rankin: he's like Chris Tremlett, the Warwickshire Edition.
Otherwise there are the following arguments: firstly, that England travel to Ireland every two years for a One-Day International. This isn't a hugely big deal, especially given the weakened nature of the English sides that regularly travel out. Indeed, the English have even tried to devalue the game to a fift een-a-side farce. It was only thanks to extensive Irish lobbying that that particular game remained a full One-Day International, which Ireland lost by only 38 runs. Not bad for their first ODI match.
There is also the argument that Irish players are "allowed to play" as locals in the County Championship. Indeed they are, but they are allowed to do so by the European Union, not the England Cricket Board. The increasingly large number of Irishmen popping up in county colours (and whites) is testament to the development programme in the other half of the British Isles. The Irish were grateful, for a time, to compete in the Friends Provident Trophy, but opted to withdraw from the competition as so many of their players were playing for counties anyway that there was little point in putting out such a second-string side against full-strength counties. This, at least, is one area where the ECB did help its nearest Associate neighbours.
The Irish were allowed in the one-day competition, although the same generosity has been absent from the ECB recently.
Once this was afforded to them, then they could take the Kiwi route. For those who are unfamiliar, New Zealand was never a touring destination in its own right for Test nations, who preferred to tag Test series onto the end of tours of Australia. For Ireland, this might not be a bad thing. The main English touring nation could visit first, as a precursor to their series against England, before the May tourists (now moved to June to avoid the IPL) could visit after playing England. If the second series was the main event in the Irish summer, then they could also avoid overly cluttering the fixture lists of those wealthy Full Members who consider Ireland to be something found on the bottom of their proverbial shoes, while giving Ireland opportunities mostly against sides that they could conceivably beat.
England have two Tourists per year; those tourists could become Ireland's tourists too.
06 - 08 June 3-day first-class match 12 - 16 June Only Test Match 22 June Twenty20 International 29 June ODI Series - 1st ODI 31 June ODI Series 2nd ODI 10 July ODI Series - 1st ODI 13 July ODI Series - 2nd ODI 16 July ODI Series - 3rd ODI 20 July Twenty20 International 24 - 26 July 3-day first-class match 31 July - 04 August First Test Match 14 - 18 August Second Test Match | Ulster XI vs India XI at Osbourne Park Ireland vs India at Stormont Ireland vs India at Stormont Ireland vs India at Stormont Ireland vs India at Stormont India vs Sri Lanka at Clontarf India vs Sri Lanka at Clontarf Ireland vs Sri Lanka at Malahide India vs Sri Lanka at Malahide Leinster XI v Sri Lanka XI at College Park Ireland v Sri Lanka at Malahide Ireland v Sri Lanka at Clontarf |
This still is not ideal, with two short, bilateral ODI series where I would ideally like to have a tri-series, but with England scheduling their two Test series less than three weeks apart, there simply wouldn't be time in the schedule. The Ulster XI would be a combined side made up of players from the Northern Union and North West Union teams, while Leinster would pretty much the Leinster Lightning side. I think, though, that three Tests, around half-a-dozen ODIs (because there is the biennial England ODI) and a couple of T20s are a good starting point for the home summer of a fledgling Test side. In the winter, tours of places like Bangladesh and Zimbabwe would help Ireland's development as a Test nation.
But of course, it would require the help of the ECB to make this possible. Helpful scheduling and some gentle persuasion would be needed for these tourists to add Ireland to their fixture lists, and I honestly do not know if it is help that England would be prepared to offer. It may be, it may not be, but I am sure that Warren Deutrom has probably already planned for both eventualities.