Tag Archives: ireland

Make Ireland a Test Team

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Zimbabwe became a Test team after winning a match against England in the 1992 World Cup.

Bangladesh became a Test team after winning a match against Pakistan in the 1999 World Cup.

Ireland beat Pakistan in the 2007 World Cup, beat Bangladesh in the 2009 T20 World Cup and have been generally giving all their opponents major heartaches when they play against them. Latest piece of evidence: their near victory against England a couple of days ago.

So why is Ireland still an Associate Nation?

Has this to do with the fact that Ireland is in Europe and not part of the Sub-Continent Cricket Mafia? Will Nepal and Bhutan get Test status before Ireland?

Needless to say, this is ridiculous. If Bangladesh can go years without winning or even drawing Test matches, why cannot the ICC grant Ireland Test status and prevent its players from leaving to England and other nations?

Spread the word!

Bangladesh Surrender to the Irish

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bangladesh-ireland-over-worm

Bangladesh is the most maddening team in the world. They have some of the most exciting batsmen and bowlers, but cannot translate those resources into consistent performances. It has been almost a decade since they became a Test nation, yet except for the odd upset, they have not improved much. Part of this has to do with the fact that the players seem to value style over function. They will endure the worst defeat as long as they can go down in the most suicidal fashion.

bangladesh-ireland-over-runs

Today was no exception. Every batsmen seemed to be playing for the crowds instead of for the team. Perhaps the worst offender was the captain Ashraful who having been given a life playing a nonsensical shot decided to repeat it just a few balls later. They managed to reach a barely respectable total after some lusty hits from the “Bengal Tiger” Mortaza in an over that eventually turned out to be the most productive of the entire match.

bangladesh-innings

In contrast, the Irish started slowly, almost as if they were paralyzed by the thought of winning the match. Luckily for them, Niall O’Brien could not run because of an injury and decided to get his runs through boundaries and succeeding at the effort with 30 of his 40 runs. Although Ireland were in a comfortable position staying ahead of Bangladesh’s equivalent runs at each over, they had the Mortaza onslaught to scale. The second O’Brien brother, Kevin, rose to the task ending the match with a flurry of hits. No final over salvation for Bangladesh.

ireland-innings

So Ireland once again qualify for the second round at a World Cup. They will be in Group F, but before that, they will have a group leader selection match against the Indians. The Irish bowling was good today and if they can repeat the effort, they should have a good chance against India. On the other hand, their batting is rather brittle.

Bangladesh will return home. They were placed in an easy group for advancement to the second round and they botched it. The return of ICL players may help improve the quality of the national team, but what they need foremost is greater discipline and a reliance on continuous improvement through hard effort instead of relying on pure talent.