Ireland make case for higher calling

(PA)

With immaculate timing, calculated to cause maximum embarrassment, Ireland yesterday pointed out the fatal weakness of world cricket. There is nowhere for the smaller, weaker nations to go and the game at the top international level is effectively a closed shop. Or a glass ceiling, as Warren Deutrom put it.

On the eve of the World Twenty20, Deutrom, the chief executive of Cricket Ireland, said: "Ireland has proved itself head and shoulders above the rest of the Associate nations, winning all the available titles in every form of the game – four-day, 50-over and Twenty20.

"Yet we are bumping up against a glass ceiling. What does the ICC want us to do? How do we get from high-performance programme to the higher echelons of the world game? There is no road map for us."

Deutrom said the full members of the ICC were a cosy club and the glass ceiling to which he referred is the difficulty in gaining entry to that elite group who play Test cricket, are part of the Future Tours Programme and whose income is accordingly much higher.

Ireland, as Deutrom pointed out, have made much of the running among the Associate nations, of which there are 34 on the rung beneath the 10 full member nations. They have regularly qualified for ICC world events and famously beat Pakistan in the last World Cup. Their opening match in the World Twenty20 is on Monday against Bangladesh and they then play champions India on Wednesday.

Although their structure for producing players is clearly working, Ireland are resigned to losing them. In recent years both Ed Joyce and Eoin Morgan have broken their Ireland connections to play for England and Morgan is in the England squad for this tournament.

Ireland's captain, William Porterfield, who has himself been forced to miss some games to play for his county Gloucestershire, was more diplomatic. He said in the World Twenty20 captains' pre-tournament press conference: "We wish Eoin all the best. We have got to be realistic and producing players who can go on has to be our aim."

Deutrom, speaking to The Wisden Cricketer in their July edition which is out today, said: "The Future Tours programme for 2012 onwards is currently under discussion but there is little discussion about accommodating any more Full Members. We are not saying that Ireland deserves to be a Test nation tomorrow but what steps do we need to take to get there?"

Test cricket would obviously benefit from more senior nations because the truth is that cricket has too few strong teams and is not a professional global game. But the ICC must be wary. In the past 30 years they have admitted Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. The former struggled for years and no longer play Test cricket because the country's political and humanitarian crisis has so weakened the team. Bangladesh have won one of the 59 Test matches they have played in the past nine years and still do not possess a robust first-class structure.

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