England Steal Another Irishman

[maehara]

Grrr. Fresh from some heroics in yesterday's CWCQ match against Scotland, Eoin Morgan has been named in the England preliminary squad for the World Twenty20. He hasn't actually played for England yet, so he's still eligible for Ireland, but the writing seems to be on the wall for his Ireland career.

Here's the thing. Ed Joyce was in the same boat a few years ago - he saw Ireland through qualifying for the 2007 World Cup, was averaging in the 90's during his final season with Ireland, before he was picked for England and... got a few matches before being cast to one side and forgotten about. Morgan may get a decent crack at an England career, but England aren't particularly good at giving new players a fair crack at the whip - if he suffers bad form during his first few matches for him, that'll be it, but ICC qualifying rules mean he wouldn't be able to play for Ireland again until 4 years pass after his final England appearance.

The lure of England is in money and Test cricket. Ireland only have the money to contract 2 full-time players (although that'll rise after the Qualifiers, as there'll be more money on offer to ODI associates in the next 4-year cycle), and can't offer Test cricket, but there's nothing to stop England playing on the desire of Irish (and Scottish) players by naming them, playing them a few times, and in doing so weakening the Associate sides that the ICC are supposed to be helping develop.

So, ICC, here's an idea: you can't stop the likes of Joyce and Morgan from choosing to play for England, but in the interests of keeping Associate cricket as strong as possible, how about allowing those players to immediately requalify for their Associate nations on the confirmation of England that they're no longer under consideration? Seems a waste of talent - and of Irish development monies - otherwise...

[brmtaylor.com admin]

Eoin Morgan played an ODI for Ireland earlier this month, how can he be selected for England? I thought there was a 4 year qualifying period since playing your last international match? The same reason why Colin de Grandhomme's dad persuaded the selectors not to pick him.

Or does that only apply to full members?

[maehara]

Or does that only apply to full members?

Yup. You can continue playing for your Associate national side while you complete your qualifying period for a Full Member side (which Morgan gets by having played county cricket), but you can't then play for the Associate side again without another 4 years' qualifying - during which you can't play for anyone else. In theory that means that the Associate side at least gets some use of players who want to play Test cricket, but it's a system that's open to abuse - England could, theoretically, deliberately weaken Ireland by selecting a player for just a few full international matches and then tossing them aside, much as they've done with Joyce.