Irish captain: We need more fixtures!

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JHunter
Posts: 160
Joined: Fri Apr 15, 2011 12:12 am

Re: Irish captain: We need more fixtures!

Post by JHunter »

CrimsonAvenger wrote:That is actually a very important point you make JHunter.
Thanks.
In the frnzy of the brazen remarks by the Irish and the on field LOI performances, we forget an important point as this one.


Too true, though I have been consistently raising this point as a reminder of sorts since 2011.

Although there might be an argument that the longer format was never in the roadmap of requirements etc.,
There is no such argument to be made. At least not one that can rest on any facts instead of fantasies. As I pointed out in 2011 in this thread the ICC's own guidelines on the rules/criteria for full membership explicitly state that applicants for full membership must play regular first-class cricket (domestic 3/4-day competition) before playing test cricket. Now back then some would argue that the pathway outlined in the document wasn't clear or that the document was only guidelines but not rules, but the first counter-argument is clearly incorrect unless those reading it have a comprehension problem and the second counter-argument only makes sense if (i) the ICC did not use similar such guideline documents when assessing applications for associate and affiliate membership and adhered to them [note: they do have such documents and apply them]; and (ii) if the guideline criteria as they are actually stated as being in the ICC document itself refers to a different form of the word criteria than currently exists in English, since criteria refers to a standard by which something may be decided or judged and synonyms for "criteria" include "benchmarks" and "rules". These guidelines rules have been around since before 2007, after which point Cricket Ireland's chief Deutrom was continually braying about there being no clear pathway to full membership before seemingly wising up to the fact (in about 2012 I think) that the ICC was not about to throw away it's two-page document outlining the rules which an applicant must adhere to in order to be judged as being ready or not for full membership.
there was no reason why Ireland should not have set that up earlier. It would have only strnegthened their case.
That's what I have been consistently noting. And it is indeed quite ironic that what I said they could have done in 2011 where I suggested that they could fairly easily put in place a 3-day competition of 3 teams playing each other once (single round robin) or twice (double round robin) and that this did not require a professional set up as was being argued at the time. It only required each player needing 4 days off out of the entire year to play on the non-weekend day of the 3-day match match (either a Friday or a Monday) and a total of 12 playing days for each player.
But I can totally understand if they are complaining about lack of LOIs. They need more game time and they are showing their worth regularly.
Absolutely! They definitely need that.

Full members need to make the effort to include Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands as part of the tour warm up matches whenever they go to England. That will go a VERY long way to helping them.

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