Analysis

Test match excitement another reminder of problems facing cricket in Ireland

Ireland play first long-form game in nearly four years to sign off difficult tour of Bangladesh

Ireland's tour of Bangladesh has been tough so far, with five losses in six white-ball matches. Photograph: Munir uz Zaman/AFP via Getty Images

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Nathan Johns
Mon Apr 3 2023 - 19:00

One-off Test match: Bangladesh vs Ireland, Tuesday April 4th, 5am start (Irish time), live on ClubberTV

Excitement is the overriding emotion in Ireland’s camp before a long-awaited return to Test cricket against Bangladesh on Tuesday. It’s been nearly four years since the country has partaken in the game’s oldest and, in the eyes of many, most prestigious format. Covid and the financial situation of the sport in Ireland have taken a toll.

Returning to Tests is a good news story. Players can finally fulfil the international career they dreamed of; a four-year gap is a long time in a sporting life. In more recent weeks, given how the white-ball portion of the tour to Bangladesh has unfolded over the past fortnight - four defeats out of six with one washout that was likely to have ended in another - a bit of excitement could well lift the playing group.

“It has been a real challenge but we were aware coming out here that it was going to be a tough trip,” admits George Dockrell, one of the few remaining links in this Irish squad to the group of players whose performances earned the country Test status in 2017. “As a group, we’re excited. To be back playing Test cricket is incredibly special.”

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That Test exile - 1,348 days, to be precise - is just one number on the bingo card of problems facing Irish cricket. A lack of quality of facilities, playing home games in England and depth issues caused by a limited second-team programme also deserve mention. Tests returning takes one issue off the card.

It’s not the players’ job to worry overly about the off-field state of the game at home. They have enough on their plate on the field. “We’ve been challenged in the past in terms of resources and a lot of the time we do more than might be expected with those challenges,” explains Dockrell. “As a group it’s nothing we’re thinking about, we’re just going out to win games of cricket and we’re doing our absolute best to prepare to do that.”

Ireland's George Dockrell plays a shot during the first one-day international (ODI) cricket match between Bangladesh and Ireland at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium in Sylhet on March 18, 2023. (Photo by Munir uz ZAMAN / AFP) (Photo by MUNIR UZ ZAMAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Yet even if the nature of the job means players have to soldier on regardless, it’s hard to look at this tour of Bangladesh as anything but a melting pot of all the game’s structural issues.

For one thing, on paper at least, players are coming into a Test match significantly underprepared. What other Test nation has at least seven expected debutants in one game? A skipper who hasn’t played long-form cricket in two years? At least one member of the XI who has never even played a professional red-ball game? Tests returning before domestic multiday cricket is a curious move. “We need to make sure there’s a first-class structure back home before we demand 10 or 15 tests a year,” says the captain Andrew Balbirnie. “You learn the fundamentals of cricket in first-class cricket.”

The only outdoor red-ball cricket the whole squad has had of late was a training camp in Spain - everything at home is still indoors. Two players also trained in India last week. Given Bangladesh’s record at home, it’s a build-up that renders even the slightest inkling of a competitive contest a huge success for the Irish players.

That’s just the red-ball problem. The Bangladeshi opposition is a reminder of the decision to play next month’s return fixtures in England instead of Dublin or Belfast; the lack of permanent playing facilities in Ireland has cost fans the chance to watch their team in the flesh. The lack of an Ireland A set-up, known as the Wolves, has also been highlighted by forcing much-needed young players, such as 20-year-old Matthew Humphreys, to learn his trade in the unforgiving environment of international cricket on the subcontinent.

For the first part of the tour, he had to do so without his spin coach. Nathan Hauritz, by all accounts a great success in his new role coaching Ireland’s men, women and pathway programmes, was given time off after his Women’s World Cup commitments in February. It’s not his fault he’s doing the work of three coaches.

None of these problems are new. The above solutions are portrayed as clever moves in a game bedevilled by a lack of resources for a minority sport in Ireland. Some probably are, but at what point does the need for so many fixes all at once become a concern?

[ Irish cricket to get permanent stadium on Sport Ireland campus at Abbotstown ]

Irish cricket will always face more issues than rival countries due to the dominance of other sports. But even allowing for that, are players being put in the best position by off-field structures to succeed on it? Things will never be perfect, but the limits of acceptable hardship are being put through the most exacting test in recent memory.

Cricket