Ireland’s male cricketers haven’t played in over two months, but the conversation around the team remains the same as ever. In advance of another tour of Zimbabwe which starts next week, once again the country’s lack of a quality player development pathway has reared its head.

Head coach Heinrich Malan has been in the job for two summers now. Long enough to be well acquainted with the trials of leading a minority sport which is severely underfunded.

When asked before departing for Zimbabwe what the biggest surprise of his tenure has been, the South African coach didn’t take long to answer: “That’s the thing that surprised me the most, our lack of current understanding of what a [development] structure looks like. We’ve got no first class cricket yet we play Test cricket.”

Ireland has a myriad of issues affecting the domestic game and the flow of talent to the top. The headline is that lack of domestic, red ball multi-day cricket, something which has been missing since 2019.

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The result of that and other pathway issues is a sink or swim approach. Young players who might have what it takes have been thrown into international cricket more in hope than anything else. Some figure things out and become good players, others are less lucky.

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“We’ve got to put a structure in place that supports these guys to develop as opposed to selecting them and hoping they’ll perform,” confirms Malan.

Interestingly, the head coach said he was under the impression that first class cricket would return to these shores in 2023. That did not happen. Provincial sides instead played only limited overs, white-ball fixtures.

“I was anticipating once we got into last year we would have the opportunity to introduce first class cricket,” he says. “That obviously hasn’t worked out in a budgetary and a funding perspective.”

It is understood that plans are being made for first class cricket to return in 2024, with a number of North vs South fixtures taking place.

When prompted further, Malan acknowledged the funding issue which has been used by Cricket Ireland officials to explain why player pathways are not up to scratch 16 years after the World Cup win over Pakistan that put Irish cricket on the map.

In 2024, the International Cricket Council (ICC) will increase Ireland’s annual share of the global television rights to roughly $18 million, up from a figure that was previously in the region of $4 million. It is the first significant hike since Ireland was awarded Test status in 2017.

However, there have been warnings that the extra cash won’t be the cure-all so many want it to be. The ICC will hold in reserve between $3-4 million to protect against the value of future TV rights deals decreasing. Cricket Ireland also has a $5 million loan from the ICC to pay off.

That $18 million figure won’t be cut in half, but sources warn it might not be far off. Malan also says it is up in the air what will come and how it will be spent.

“We’re not going to be able to afford all the things but it’s making sure we prioritise and get those rocks right . . .We can ensure we set up some of those structures, pipelines, systems, playing first class cricket, more domestic cricket. How do we move to a structure where we’ve got more contracted domestic cricketers so we can develop these guys throughout the year?

“I can honestly say from my point of view we’ve shared these views and these opinions and hopefully we get some good feedback in the way the funding model is going to come through and how we relate that back to our everyday learnings.”

That’s the medium to long-term future.

In the short-term, Ireland continue their preparation for next year’s T20 World Cup against a distraught Zimbabwe side that shockingly failed to qualify, minnows Uganda travelling at their expense.

Ireland are not exactly a confident side themselves. The little cricket they did play when it wasn’t raining in the back end of the summer saw them struggle badly against England’s second string.

“The break has been nice, says Malan. “There’s been some real specificity around the work we’ve done around the last six to eight weeks. We managed to get away to Spain 10 days ago to get out on grass which has been fantastic.

“The lads are excited to play. I’m pretty sure on the back of a good rest here we will be able to hit the ground running and play some good cricket.”

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