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Ireland have welcomed confirmation that they will be able to play Test cricket for the first time in 2019 if they win the next Intercontinental Cup for associate nations. But they have also stressed the “anomalies”, mostly financial, that remain as a result of the compromise that was necessary for the controversial reform of the International Cricket Council to be voted through. |
When the idea of making Test cricket a meritocracy was originally trumpeted as part of those reforms, there was to be promotion and relegation between two tiers with eight teams in each. But now the threat of relegation has been removed in the details of the ICC Test Challenge that were announced after a board meeting in Dubai.
That was crucial in helping to secure support for the proposals from strugglers such as Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, who will remain full members of the ICC and retain their places on the new Future Tours Programme even if they are 10th in the World Test Rankings in late 2017, then lose a four-Test play-off against the Intercontinental Cup winners the following year.
“The first thing to say is that we’re pleased, and that’s speaking on behalf of the Associates as a whole and Ireland in particular,” said Warren Deutrom, the chief executive of Cricket Ireland. “For us it was never so much about the threat of relegation, it was having that opportunity to be able to get up into Test cricket. Now we have that, and after winning four of the last five Intercontinental Cups, obviously our goal is now to do that again and get into the play-off.”
However Deutrom added: “There is still a pretty significant anomaly in terms of funding and other issues. Were Ireland or another Associate to win the Test Challenge and secure Test status from 2019, we could end up playing a significant amount of Test cricket and still receive significantly less than the full member country we’d beaten.
“There would also be an issue over fixtures, because the beaten country would retain the tours and series they had already arranged and as I understand the proposals, would also join the next Intercontinental Cup from 2019, so that would mean playing more matches.
“So there are still a few things to work through. I also think it is important that the mandatory release of players for international cricket that already applies to one-day tournaments is extended to cover the Intercontinental Cup. That could have significant implications for English counties who employ Irish players from the summer of 2016 onwards.
However Deutrom welcomed the pledge by Giles Clarke, the chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, which is repeated in an article in the new Wisden defending the ICC reforms, that if Ireland win the Intercontinental Cup and then the Test challenge, they would be guaranteed an inaugural Test against England at Lord’s in the Ashes summer of 2019. “That’s a pretty big carrot for Irish cricketers to aspire to,” Deutrom added.
In the shorter term, Ireland play two Twenty20 internationals in Dublin against Sri Lanka, the recently-crowned world champions, in early May, their first chance to bounce back from the disappointment of being denied a place in the tournament proper in Bangladesh after a dramatic defeat by the Netherlands.
