I feel bad for Ireland. They are tragic heroes. With their last 2 games against a clinical India firing on all cylinders and a resurgent Pakistan, their chances of qualifying are low. This after a good Worldcup so far.
It seems like Ireland have a problem blooding new players, and this team is no longer young. The young, powerful Kevin O'Brien who demolished England in 2011 at Bangalore is now 30 and somewhat subdued. The tyro Dockerell of 2011 is now a wiser 24. Niall O'Brien, the most corageous batsman I have seen in the past 8 years, now has a tire around his waist and playing his last Worldcup. He will be 37 by the time it is played again. Mooney looks perpetually angry. Porterfield and Joyce are consummate professionals who are well aware that their best batsman is the captain of a miserable English team, and their best fast bowler is unavailable to them because simply to retain the status of an England reject he must give up the right to play for his mother nation. One gets the sense that this core group of players who have been together through their 3rd world cup feels somewhat hard done by at the hands of the exclusive ICC members club.
There is a strong feeling from all the media coverage that this group feels that all that is required to prove themselves has been done and yet they get no respect. India do not play them at all. England has played them a few times but nowhere as frequently as they need to. South Africa does not and Australia does not. That is the varsity of International cricket, and Ireland can not get a game against any of them unless it is an ICC tournament.
They have not asked for any favors. Even before today's game the media asked him if he wished India would do them a favor, he said he did not expect any favors from India. Ireland need to win one of their final two games to ensure qualification.
They must have fancied their chances against India today after the first 5-6 overs of their innings. But after the first bad start by his seamers in the Worldcup, Dhoni realized that he needed to take the pace of the ball coming so nicely on to the bats of the Irish openers. Spin was introduced and the Irish were suddenly all at sea. Stirling, playing magnificently until then, was the first to go, and then the Innings suddenly derailed. Runs dried up and the Irish put themselves under pressure.
In the end anything short of 300 was going to impossible to defend against this marauding Indian top order. Rohit Sharma is the only one who has missed out so far. Dhawan has one century already and so does Kohli and Rahane as well. This Irish team, for all its spirit, does not have the bowling firepower to stop this kind of batsman. They have never before seen such batsmen. Watching them on TV and actually being at the receiving end of such an array of all round shots are two very different experiences.
The last time they played India was at a world cup. It is just sad. They are a great team, and really honest and courageous players who back themselves to win. It is impossibly cruel that Morgan and Rankin are not allowed to play for Ireland anymore. With those two in its ranks, this team could have seriously challenged. Maybe one of the giants could have been brought down, even. Sad that we will never know.
What is remarkable is that they still play as hard as ever, old or not, and play with smiles on their faces, wronged or not.
This Irish team is one of the main reasons I feel no love lost for the English team. They simply do not have the quality to play International Cricket anymore, if confined to pick players from purely English players. They have poached the best talent from Zimbabwe, South Africa, West Indies, Scotland, and Ireland, and made stupid visa rules to create a virtual captive labor market for themselves. The best players of these countries are forced to give up their own country for the privilege of being considered for English selection, as if that is a privilege to be earned by years of struggle. This, when the "English" players on this team are of the quality of Bell, Cook, Buttler, Anderson, Ravi Bopara, Moeen Ali. Not exactly fantasy favorites with their dour deliberately boring style of play.
These countries at least have enough Cricket talent to support this artificial system of colonialism. Ireland can not afford to lose the players of the quality of Morgan and Rankin, and remain competitive. That is also the biggest worry for Ireland. Is there another core group coming through the ranks to replace this fantastic generation. The middle order rock called Niall O'Brien will be gone in the next Worldcup. So will Porterfield, as well as Joyce, and Mooney and Stirling. Who si replacing all these guys. Is there enough first class cricket of a high enough class to produce another crop of players of similar or better quality. Or, will their frustration at being denied Test status and being deprived of resources as well as opportunity lead to a premature end to the Irish cricket experiment. I hope not.
I think that West Indies and Zimbabwe have made a case for demotion, and should be replaced with Ireland and Afghanistan immediately. I think the ICC can afford to be generous and "sponsor" two more teams fully, and two more at 50%. The deal should be to grow the game over 10 years in their country to break even on the ICC investment. The ICC has sufficient funds to do this, but the problem is not financial.
It is greed, pure and simple. India has the money, and Cricket is India centric. Ireland enjoys no special relationship with India. Their players are unknown, and with such limited opportunities, they have no way of getting better at their game and participate more fully in the global Cricket revenue stream. They stay poor and for no lack of skill, talent or desire. Morgan is the only Irish player in the IPL, and he had to become and English player for that privilege. I sincerely feel that Eoin Morgan is more comfortable as a Kolkata Knight Ryder than in the English dressing room which seems to be a horrible workplace by any description.
The Indian batsmen, none of whom were what have now become the last time these two teams played, have sliced up the Irish bowling like nobody probably does to them normally. This level of batting is so different from the English Cricket system in which most of these players make a living.
This global system of exploitation to keep the vampire English Cricket system alive, by drinking the fresh lifeblood of other nations, has got to stop. If BCCI can pull off this change to finally break the shackles of Empire, it would have done the world of Cricket a good turn. Sachin Tendulkar's call for a 25 team world cup next time has got to be a jolt to the governing body. He is their Worldcup ambassador, and he has gone off message very publicly to call for an expansion rather than a contraction of international Cricket.
I feel sad for the Irish, but happy that they are still around. Hope they win over Pakistan and get a spot in the playoffs, although with Pakistan looking like they are finally begining to work out the balance of their side, that seems unlikely. This is not 2007, and while Pakistan are not much improved from then, this Irish team that slew that dragon so famously, is now an older force with diminished firepower. May they win.
It seems like Ireland have a problem blooding new players, and this team is no longer young. The young, powerful Kevin O'Brien who demolished England in 2011 at Bangalore is now 30 and somewhat subdued. The tyro Dockerell of 2011 is now a wiser 24. Niall O'Brien, the most corageous batsman I have seen in the past 8 years, now has a tire around his waist and playing his last Worldcup. He will be 37 by the time it is played again. Mooney looks perpetually angry. Porterfield and Joyce are consummate professionals who are well aware that their best batsman is the captain of a miserable English team, and their best fast bowler is unavailable to them because simply to retain the status of an England reject he must give up the right to play for his mother nation. One gets the sense that this core group of players who have been together through their 3rd world cup feels somewhat hard done by at the hands of the exclusive ICC members club.
There is a strong feeling from all the media coverage that this group feels that all that is required to prove themselves has been done and yet they get no respect. India do not play them at all. England has played them a few times but nowhere as frequently as they need to. South Africa does not and Australia does not. That is the varsity of International cricket, and Ireland can not get a game against any of them unless it is an ICC tournament.
They have not asked for any favors. Even before today's game the media asked him if he wished India would do them a favor, he said he did not expect any favors from India. Ireland need to win one of their final two games to ensure qualification.
They must have fancied their chances against India today after the first 5-6 overs of their innings. But after the first bad start by his seamers in the Worldcup, Dhoni realized that he needed to take the pace of the ball coming so nicely on to the bats of the Irish openers. Spin was introduced and the Irish were suddenly all at sea. Stirling, playing magnificently until then, was the first to go, and then the Innings suddenly derailed. Runs dried up and the Irish put themselves under pressure.
In the end anything short of 300 was going to impossible to defend against this marauding Indian top order. Rohit Sharma is the only one who has missed out so far. Dhawan has one century already and so does Kohli and Rahane as well. This Irish team, for all its spirit, does not have the bowling firepower to stop this kind of batsman. They have never before seen such batsmen. Watching them on TV and actually being at the receiving end of such an array of all round shots are two very different experiences.
The last time they played India was at a world cup. It is just sad. They are a great team, and really honest and courageous players who back themselves to win. It is impossibly cruel that Morgan and Rankin are not allowed to play for Ireland anymore. With those two in its ranks, this team could have seriously challenged. Maybe one of the giants could have been brought down, even. Sad that we will never know.
What is remarkable is that they still play as hard as ever, old or not, and play with smiles on their faces, wronged or not.
This Irish team is one of the main reasons I feel no love lost for the English team. They simply do not have the quality to play International Cricket anymore, if confined to pick players from purely English players. They have poached the best talent from Zimbabwe, South Africa, West Indies, Scotland, and Ireland, and made stupid visa rules to create a virtual captive labor market for themselves. The best players of these countries are forced to give up their own country for the privilege of being considered for English selection, as if that is a privilege to be earned by years of struggle. This, when the "English" players on this team are of the quality of Bell, Cook, Buttler, Anderson, Ravi Bopara, Moeen Ali. Not exactly fantasy favorites with their dour deliberately boring style of play.
These countries at least have enough Cricket talent to support this artificial system of colonialism. Ireland can not afford to lose the players of the quality of Morgan and Rankin, and remain competitive. That is also the biggest worry for Ireland. Is there another core group coming through the ranks to replace this fantastic generation. The middle order rock called Niall O'Brien will be gone in the next Worldcup. So will Porterfield, as well as Joyce, and Mooney and Stirling. Who si replacing all these guys. Is there enough first class cricket of a high enough class to produce another crop of players of similar or better quality. Or, will their frustration at being denied Test status and being deprived of resources as well as opportunity lead to a premature end to the Irish cricket experiment. I hope not.
I think that West Indies and Zimbabwe have made a case for demotion, and should be replaced with Ireland and Afghanistan immediately. I think the ICC can afford to be generous and "sponsor" two more teams fully, and two more at 50%. The deal should be to grow the game over 10 years in their country to break even on the ICC investment. The ICC has sufficient funds to do this, but the problem is not financial.
It is greed, pure and simple. India has the money, and Cricket is India centric. Ireland enjoys no special relationship with India. Their players are unknown, and with such limited opportunities, they have no way of getting better at their game and participate more fully in the global Cricket revenue stream. They stay poor and for no lack of skill, talent or desire. Morgan is the only Irish player in the IPL, and he had to become and English player for that privilege. I sincerely feel that Eoin Morgan is more comfortable as a Kolkata Knight Ryder than in the English dressing room which seems to be a horrible workplace by any description.
The Indian batsmen, none of whom were what have now become the last time these two teams played, have sliced up the Irish bowling like nobody probably does to them normally. This level of batting is so different from the English Cricket system in which most of these players make a living.
This global system of exploitation to keep the vampire English Cricket system alive, by drinking the fresh lifeblood of other nations, has got to stop. If BCCI can pull off this change to finally break the shackles of Empire, it would have done the world of Cricket a good turn. Sachin Tendulkar's call for a 25 team world cup next time has got to be a jolt to the governing body. He is their Worldcup ambassador, and he has gone off message very publicly to call for an expansion rather than a contraction of international Cricket.
I feel sad for the Irish, but happy that they are still around. Hope they win over Pakistan and get a spot in the playoffs, although with Pakistan looking like they are finally begining to work out the balance of their side, that seems unlikely. This is not 2007, and while Pakistan are not much improved from then, this Irish team that slew that dragon so famously, is now an older force with diminished firepower. May they win.
No comments:
Post a Comment