IceAgeComing
Retired Administrator
- Joined
- May 26, 2013
- Location
- Brussels, Belgium
- Profile Flag
- Scotland
- Online Cricket Games Owned
- Don Bradman Cricket 14 - PS3
- Don Bradman Cricket 14 - Steam PC
The question about the development of talent is still a real question for Ireland though - the team they have now isn't as good as the one that they had a few years ago, and while they still do very well in the Intercontinental Cup; in the shorter forms of the game Scotland and the Netherlands are competitive with them - indeed, I'd argue that both of those teams are almost at the level of Afghanistan and are still making positive strides. Ireland have blamed their recent underperformance in one day and T20 games on focusing on getting Test status; it will be interesting to see if that change in status means that they once again start focusing more broadly.
Also: this really opens the question of the ICC needing to define exactly what you need to gain Full Member status - because in the case of Ireland very little has changed in recent years (since they set up the Interprovincial Competition and that was a few years ago now); so why are they suddenly test standard now, and not two years ago? My solution would be to abolish the whole concept of status and let everyone in on the fun - but if that isn't possible, we need a concrete idea of what a country needs to have in order to be considered for Full Membership; which would make the next step much easier for countries that are increasingly close to the standard of play on the field needed - like Scotland and the Netherlands who've recently beaten Full Members in One Day matches (in Scotland's case, the only thing that prevented the victory against Sri Lanka from being an ODI was the ground that they played at; and the Netherlands beat Zimbabwe in an ODI). Below that I don't think that Scotland entirely has the infrastructure to be a major international nation at this point - plenty of good grounds, just none really designed for paid crowds to come and watch - plus we don't really have a domestic structure above Club Cricket at this point to satisfy the ICC, there's the North Sea thing with the Dutch but that's really about it.
Also: this really opens the question of the ICC needing to define exactly what you need to gain Full Member status - because in the case of Ireland very little has changed in recent years (since they set up the Interprovincial Competition and that was a few years ago now); so why are they suddenly test standard now, and not two years ago? My solution would be to abolish the whole concept of status and let everyone in on the fun - but if that isn't possible, we need a concrete idea of what a country needs to have in order to be considered for Full Membership; which would make the next step much easier for countries that are increasingly close to the standard of play on the field needed - like Scotland and the Netherlands who've recently beaten Full Members in One Day matches (in Scotland's case, the only thing that prevented the victory against Sri Lanka from being an ODI was the ground that they played at; and the Netherlands beat Zimbabwe in an ODI). Below that I don't think that Scotland entirely has the infrastructure to be a major international nation at this point - plenty of good grounds, just none really designed for paid crowds to come and watch - plus we don't really have a domestic structure above Club Cricket at this point to satisfy the ICC, there's the North Sea thing with the Dutch but that's really about it.
