World Cup: Ireland soar despite England defections

Several of their best players have left for England, including skipper Eoin Morgan

SYDNEY:

England captain Eoin Morgan could have been forgiven for thinking about what might have been after his former Ireland teammates made a fine start to the World Cup, while his miserable run of form continues.

Morgan was out for a duck — his fourth in five innings — as England started their World Cup campaign with a 111-run thrashing by arch-rivals Australia in Melbourne on Saturday.

By contrast, fellow left-handed batsman Ed Joyce — who went from Ireland to England and back to Ireland again — made 84 as the Irish enjoyed their latest taste of World Cup success with a four-wicket victory over the West Indies in Nelson on Monday.

Joyce, 36, made the switch to pursue a bid to play Test cricket — something he couldn’t do as an Ireland player.

He was followed across the Irish Sea by Morgan, who  went to Middlesex and made his debut at the age of 19, before featuring in the lucrative Indian Premier League Twenty20 competition.

Joyce, meanwhile, made his England ODI debut against Ireland in 2006. He then went on to score a hundred against Australia in Sydney and was a member of England’s squad at the 2007 World Cup. But following a lacklustre showing by his adopted country in the Caribbean, Joyce was dropped.

He was granted special dispensation by the International Cricket Council (ICC) to once again represent his home nation, shortly before the 2011 World Cup.

Joyce said he had decided to play for England because he wanted to play in Tests, but that as a “born and bred Irishman” he was eager to represent his country again.

One of the reasons Ireland are pushing for Test status is to stop losing their best players to England, with paceman Boyd Rankin also switching allegiance.

Ireland’s chief selector Alan Lewis, a former Irish captain and international rugby referee, made his annoyance clear in an interview last week. “I look at the England set up and over the last 10 years, three people from this little island where cricket is the fourth or fifth sport are playing for a country whose national sport is cricket,” said Lewis. “It is a wee bit irritating to think where we could be if Morgan and Rankin were available. I wouldn’t want to deprive Morgan the opportunity with the ability he has. It’s a great story, but it’s a great frustration. To get our players back, that’s part of the next step.”

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has also argued Ireland shouldn’t be a ‘feeder nation’ for England. “I’m very sympathetic to countries like Ireland that could keep losing their best players. It’s something that I feel shouldn’t happen,” Ponting told the BBC. “If the ICC looks at that and is serious about Ireland maybe one day becoming a Test-playing nation, then they can’t afford to have their better players going off at a young age.”

But with complaints that the top nations already play too much cricket, the question remains as to whether the ICC really is serious about Ireland achieving Test status. 

Published in The Express Tribune, February 18^th, 2015.

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