The Rise of Irish Cricket in the Past Decade
In a surprising turnaround, recently defeated Bangladesh by seven wickets in the first One Day International match played in Belfast. The Irish captain William Porterfield played a match-winning inning of unbeaten 118 runs, that helped his team achieve the target of 235 runs with five overs to spare.
Unfortunately, Ireland had failed to beat http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747 in the second game and that meant that the series ended in a 1-1 draw. If the Irish team had achieved what had been deemed the improbable - beating Bangladesh 2-0 - they would have jumped to the number ten position, overtaking Zimbabwe in the ICC ODI rankings.
Ireland's journey in the recent times, from being the outsiders, minnow Associate nations to a team to watch out for in the future has been phenomenonal. Recently, Ireland won the ICC World Cricket League Division One tournament in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Netherlands-c753.
Ireland won all its group matches, establishing itself as the number one team in the associate level cricket. But this was not a first for them, as the rise to being the number 11th side in the world has been steady over the years.
Ireland has a long cricketing history. Cricket was introduced to its grounds back in 18th century by the British but its journey in the initial period was anything but smooth. The game suffered several setbacks due to conflicts between the landlords and tenants and internal wars. A major damage happened to cricket when the Gaelic Athletic Association, the guardian of native games in Ireland imposed a ban on so called “foreign games”. This ban was officially lifted in the year 1970.
Despite the obstacles, the Irish managed to send their teams abroad and also host matches in their country. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ireland-c751 began their One Day International career in 1980 in Gillette Cup which was played in Englan. But it was in 2005, that they won the ICC trophy for the Associates and established themselves as the champions among the Associates.This win also allowed them to qualify for their first ever World Cup of cricket in 2007.
Ireland started their World Cup campaign with bang. They held http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 and reached Super Eights.
In Super Eights they defeated Bangladesh thus showing the world that they are there to stay.
Ireland has applied for the status of a test cricket playing nation to the ICC. The Irish team has made its mark in the world of cricket by establishing itself as the Associate champions and has even managed to put up a tough fight against the superior teams on several occasions. In a recent game against Australia, they had almost stunned the Aussies into submission before the World Champions wriggled out to beat Ireland.
The lack of recognition in the Irish team is forcing some of its key players to migrate to the English clubs and teams. And that is the main issue affecting their cricket as well.
It is widely accepted that the only way for the novices to improve their cricketing skills is play more and more matches against the top teams. However, despite the willingness, the Irish team has managed to play only once against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 and England respectively in the last three years. Despite repeat assurances, the ICC continues to neglect the smaller cricketing nations like Ireland, who get only a small share of its funding.
The only way forward, therefore, for a cricketing country like Ireland is to expect a tad more of the ICC finances, and play regularly against the top-notch nations. This will hold particularly true for Ireland if they need to turn into the 11th Test match-playing country in the world.
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