Maturing minnows even more hungry

Minnows, mercenaries and party poopers. This pretty much sums up the media's coverage of Ireland's World Cup journey so far. And as the team begin the most intense and challenging week of their cricketing lives, it is beginning to grate.

Following their spirited performance against England on Friday, the team is based here in Georgetown until the early part of next week. Ahead lie two huge games, against South Africa tomorrow and New Zealand next Monday. They then fly to Barbados for games against Australia and Bangladesh, then meet Sri Lanka in Grenada. It's an itinerary that would test the best teams in the world.

The players have handled the press attention well these past few weeks. They have answered questions honestly, openly and with wit and intelligence.

But rather than being lauded as a breath of fresh air, or credited with one of the great performances of the tournament, Ireland's progress to the Super Eights is subject to a mix of condescension and irritation.

Much of the coverage surrounding Friday's game against England centred on the role of the four players in the squad born outside Ireland.

Over the weekend, The Irish Times was asked to contribute to a local radio programme which wanted five minutes to talk about the Ireland cricket team. Halfway through the broadcast, the host asked why it was the Ireland team was "full of cricketing mercenaries". It was a question fielded by Trent Johnston several times in the run-up to Friday's game.

This is unfair. The four players born abroad (Trent Johnston, Jeremy Bray, Dave Langford Smith, Andre Botha) have assimilated fully into Irish life, with wives or partners. Cricket was not the defining reason for their settling in Ireland.

Second, they don't get paid. Accusations of financial gain as the motive for switching countries sits more easily with England's Kevin Pietersen or, indeed, Ed Joyce, than it does with the Ireland team.

The attitude of the ICC is also difficult to fathom. Before the tournament, the "minnows" debate raged, prompted by the inclusion of four Associate level countries for the first time.

The governing body stood firm, taking credit for their attempts to broaden the game's base. However, their support for the minnows did not extend to wanting them to actually win.

Over the weekend, Chris Dehring, the managing director of Cricket World Cup, was totting up the commercial effect of Ireland and Bangladesh reaching the Super Eights.

"There is no substitute for losing India, it is like Brazil going out of the soccer World Cup," said Dehring over the weekend.

What this means is his business plan has taken a hit. Ireland are guilty by association and are charged with ruining "Super Sunday". For months travel agencies and hotel groups have been on an offensive aimed at luring wealthy Indians from the subcontinent and in the US to the Caribbean. If all went to plan, on Sunday, April 15th, in Barbados, India were scheduled to meet Pakistan. As the world knows, that ain't gonna happen.

Due to the unpredictability of sport, Super Sunday will now see Ireland take on Bangladesh.

The ICC is under pressure here on a number of fronts. Empty stadiums is one area of contention. At between $25 and $100, ticket prices are too high, taking the tournament away from the locals for whom such a sum is a large proportion of their monthly income. The expensive seats remain empty, as sponsors do not take up their allocations.

Yesterday, the Ireland team were keen to let others do the talking. "All we can do is carry on doing what we've been doing, playing as well as we can with smiles on our faces," said Andrew White.

It is a sign of the progress made by the team in recent weeks that the defeat by England was met with disappointment. The last five overs of the England innings yielded 65 runs, due in part to the absence from the field of opening bowler Boyd Rankin, who had cramp. This period allowed Paul Collingwood to club his way to 90 and England to an unassailable 266 for 7.

"At this level the margin for error is so small. When you get it wrong those balls are not going for two or three, they are going for maximums," said Andre Botha, referring to the number of sixes hit in the final few overs.

"We have to become more professional in some areas of our game, in particular we need to sort out the 'death' bowling," he says. "And we must try to go at four-and-a-half an over in the middle of our innings by rotating the strike more effectively."