Ireland smashed cricket's glass ceiling - then quickly rebuilt it underneath them

Associate Ireland spent years crying out for Full Member fixtures but since their promotion to the top table they've become what they used to hate.

This article first appeared here https://carnivalcricket.substack.com/p/ireland-smashed-crickets-glass-ceiling  and is reproduced with kind permission of the author.

Warren Deutrom is usually regarded as a fairly reserved man. The Cricket Ireland Chief Executive’s near nineteen year tenure has been marked with notably few outbursts or controversial statements.

In 2013 in an interview with Wisden however he came out with a doozy: “What is the point of associate cricket?”.

At the time Ireland were four years away from ICC full membership and suffering from a chronic lack of fixtures against top teams. From the 2007 World Cup to 2014 they would play just 25 completed ODIs against full members, averaging less than four games a year.

Deutrom would go on to add “…we are bumping up against a glass ceiling … How do we get from high-performance program to the higher echelons of the world game? There is no road map for us.”

At the same time he would say to Cricinfo “For me, having top Associates playing the bottom-ranked Test teams is pure common sense and the first step in breaching the glass ceiling separating the Full Member and Associate world.”

A noble statement you’d have to say, standing up for the little guy.

Twelve years on however Ireland are the full member, not the little guy, and any sense of solidarity with the associate world has long since dissipated.

It is six years since Cricket Ireland deigned to host a men’s associate side, even then the hastily arranged T20I tri-series against Scotland and the Netherlands was never meant to happen. The collapse of the planned EuroSlam leaving a hole in the three nation’s calendars that had to be filled.

Before that it was 2016 when Hong Kong were invited to Bready for a T20I series, when Ireland were still an associate side. Hong Kong won the first game and the second was abandoned. Perhaps the embarrassment of losing to what was supposed to be a weaker team had an effect on future planning.

Those matches proved to be of great service to Ireland though. Lorcan Tucker and a 16 year old Josh Little debuted against Hong Kong, Harry Tector entered during the 2019 tri-series. The low-key nature proved perfect for developing an elite next generation of Irish talent.

We are in a time where Cricket Ireland seem more focused on balance sheets and corporate hierarchy than actually organising any international cricket for players or fans. But even in that world where profits are paramount, surely a series against growing powerhouses Nepal or the USA would prove easier to sell to broadcasters than a Zimbabwe or West Indies visit?

Ireland regularly face these teams - and lose to them - at ICC qualifiers, it is well past time they realised that they cannot assume themselves to be above playing their closest competitors.

Hands may end up being forced in any case this year. As reported by The Part Timer recently, the inaugural European T20 Premier League may be postponed, leaving a gaping hole in Ireland’s home summer.

If that does come to pass then the easy option would be to repeat the 2019 trick, host Scotland and Netherlands and hope for better next year. A more proactive governing body might see an opportunity to do something bigger and buy into the ETPL idea by inviting some extra European associates.

The ICC T20 World Cup European Regional Final finishes on 11 July, four days before the scheduled start of the ETPL. Participants Italy, Jersey and Guernsey, alongside the Scots and Dutch, would all have free schedules if some sort of proto-European Cup was to be organised.

Malahide and Clontarf have already been booked for a six team tournament, the players are desperate for more cricket and the home fans would surely enjoy seeing some dominant performances, those have been few and far between in recent years.

All the pieces are there, it remains to be seen if anyone at Cricket Ireland has the bravery to try pull it off. The ECB have made it very clear by now that they have no interest in providing leadership for European cricket, perhaps it is time that the only other full member on the continent step into that gap and do it themselves.

Based on recent history, it looks unlikely.