Ireland aim for Test status by 2020

CRICKET:THE DEVELOPMENT of a first-class cricket structure on the island of Ireland over the next four years, leading to the eventual goal of Test status by 2020, were two of the central tenets of an impressive and ambitious strategic plan announced by Cricket Ireland yesterday.

The news that Phil Simmons has extended his contract by a further two years, up until the end of World Cup group stage qualification in 2013, and that a record 23 players contracts have been awarded, are part of the short-term steps in the on-field development.

Among the longer-term goals set out by the game’s governing body are to double the participation in the sport to 50,000, with the strengthening of the game in Munster and further development in Connacht and the setting up of regional academies, while also increasing self-generated income from €1.5 million to €2.5 million by 2015.

Cricket Ireland chief executive Warren Deutrom believes the ambition of Test status in an eight-year time span is realistic and that it is the only way of guaranteeing the country’s best cricketers remain playing with Ireland.

“Unless we have a pathway in place that leads to Test cricket we are always going to lose our best players,” admitted Deutrom at yesterday’s press conference in Dublin. “If we’re not sharing the aspirations of our players, who want to play Test cricket, we will always be second rate.”

One of the International Cricket Council’s prerequisites for Test cricket is a first-class structure, which Cricket Ireland intend to have up and running by 2015.

A North versus South match this summer is expected to open the way to a full return of an inter-provincial series that would in turn lead on to a first-class structure.

Deutrom confirmed the governing body were in ongoing negotiations with chief sponsor RSA Insurance about “extending the scale and scope” of their backing of the sport in Ireland.

“A formal announcement of this and other commercial deals will be made in the coming weeks. This allows us to proceed with confidence as we work towards our vision of becoming a Test nation by 2020.”

Ireland playing contracts – Category A: Trent Johnston, Alex Cusack, Kevin OBrien, John Mooney.

Category B: William Porterfield, Niall OBrien, Paul Stirling, George Dockrell, Gary Wilson, Boyd Rankin, Ed Joyce, Andrew White.

Category C: Albert van der Merwe, Nigel Jones, Max Sorensen, Shane Getkate, James Shannon, Stuart Thompson, Andrew Poynter, Andrew Balbirnie, Tom Fisher, Peter Connell, Rory McCann.

O’BRIEN FACES IRELAND AXE OVER BANGLADESH PREMIER LEAGUE DECISION

THE POSSIBILITY of Niall O’Brien being dropped by Ireland over his decision to take up a contract with the Bangladesh Premier League looks a real possibility after coach Phil Simmons reiterated his stance on the upcoming tour to Kenya.

Wicketkeeper O’Brien was bought in the BPL auction for €62,000 by the Khulna Royal Bengals for the three weeks of the competition, but he is willing to fly to Mombasa for the two World Cup qualifying matches on February 18th and 20th.

Simmons, though, wants all his players in Africa for the duration of the tour and highlighted the fact that other squad members did not put themselves forward for the BPL auction.

“I’ve made myself clear from day one, Irish cricket comes before anything else. It’s a case where we have five or six players who could have gone to BPL. And five of them decide not to when they saw the fixtures that Ireland has and one decides to go,” said Simmons.

“If it was a case that the players didn’t know how I feel about it then I could understand, but everybody has known my decision for a long time.”