A CHILL WIND

Reliance on imports puts spotlight on Irish system

The Dublin suburb of Clontarf won’t quite be as hot as Kingston or Port-of-Spain today, but the sun will shine down on Ireland as they take on the West Indies at Castle Avenue.

The men from the Caribbean aren’t as daunting as they used to be, and Ireland go in with three successive wins over today’s opponents.

Heinrich Malan’s plans have been disrupted by the wrecking ball which has robbed him of seamers Mark Adair, Graham Hume, Craig Young, Fionn Hand and Curtis Campher, and may force him to hand out as many as four new caps.

The Windies have always been popular visitors, and superstars such as Brian Lara, Viv Richards and Joel Garner wowed Irish crowds on many occasions.

This year’s crop is more low key, but there are players to be excited about such as Shai Hope, who scored 170 on his last visit to this ground, pacemen Shamar Joseph, Alzarri Joseph and Jayden Seales, and dangerous slow left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie.

West Indies captain Hope certainly believes the team is in a good place to deliver today.

‘The guys have settled in well and are ready to go,’ said Hope. ‘As soon as we got off the plane you could see the hunger. The preparation has been going well and all the senior boys in the squad know they have to continue raising their hand showing they really want it … good signs.’

This is the Windies’ first visit to these shores since 2019. That summer saw England, West Indies, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Scotland and Netherlands play here, a glut of action that supporters can only dream about this year.

Summer’s lease hath all too short a date, wrote Shakespeare, and one who can definitely concur with that is Ireland batsman Andrew Balbirnie, who will hope to shake a few of the darling buds of May at Castle Avenue.

Today marks the first day of his international season, a campaign which will end on Sunday. Retired from T20s, the Pembroke and North-West Warriors player will head back to club and provincial fare, his summer in green over on May 25.

The Ireland test captain will have been envious to read that Zimbabwe — who his team beat twice in the past year — will be playing 11 Tests this year, just as Ireland’s scheduled five matches were reduced to two.

Among the quartet who may make their international debuts this week are Cade Carmichael, Tom Mayes, Jordan Neill and Liam McCarthy. This has led to much comment online by supporters, because all four were born and learned their cricket in South Africa.

It is a situation that has long been a matter for debate, with the former Ireland coach Adrian Birrell — himself a South African — telling me in 2007 that he would never pick more than four imports, reckoning that supporters would not get behind an Irish team with more than that number.

Ireland were just dipping their toes at ODI level then, so he brought Jeremy Bray, David Langford-Smith and Trent Johnston (all born in Australia), and Andre Botha (South Africa) to the 2007 World Cup, drawing some griping from UK media, even though all four were living here permanently and had married Irish women.

By the 2011 World Cup, Phil Simmons had sufficiently weaned the side off imports to field 10 Irishmen in the famous win over England.

Ireland’s accession to ICC full membership in 2017 accelerated the influx from overseas of players ambitious to earn a Test cap. Ireland’s first Test XI contained 10 men born here alongside Tim Murtagh, born into an Irish family in London. But when Ireland returned to Test cricket in 2023 after a three-year gap, the next four men capped were all out of Africa.

The dangers of the practice were seen when Murray Commins and Theo van Woerkom jetted home as soon as they were discovered to be not up to the standard required.

Opportunities have dried up for Irishmen at English counties, removing the finishing school that made the 2011-18 team so strong. Despite much investment in the pathways here, it is too easy for coaches to look to ready-made options from overseas.

Last summer, 88 men played in the Interpro tournaments, just 50 per cent were born in Ireland. Several of the rest were pros who had fetched up here for the season but many were players bidding to play internationally – 24 in total were South African, with others from Australia (8), India (7), England (3), Zimbabwe (3), as well as a New Zealander, Dane, Saudi and Canadian. More South Africans played in the interpros than players from Ulster, Munster and Connacht put together.

And they found receptive Irish selectors — five imports were picked for the recent Wolves tour to Abu Dhabi — and now four are at the top of the rank waiting for the cap cab.

Ireland vice-captain Lorcan Tucker, speaking to the Irish Mail on Sunday this weekend, was asked had he any concerns.

‘Not at all,’ he replied. ‘These guys have made a big commitment to cricket in Ireland, uprooting their lives and careers to come here, and we are the better for it.

‘They have lived here for several years and have performed in the interpros and for the Wolves, so they are entitled to play as much as anyone.’

One must be careful not to go the nativist route and we need to recognise the great strengths many overseas players and coaches bring — and as rugby and football have shown, a winning Irish team will get supporters behind it no matter who is in it.