Women's team in form

Last Friday's final of the Leinster Women's Senior Cup between Malahide and YMCA at The Village was dominated by members of the national squad.

Clare O'Leary and Miriam Grealey scored 39 and 38, respectively, for YMCA, and when Malahide chased what was destined to be the winning total of 92, Caitriona Beggs made 34 while Barbara McDonald contributed 31, as Grealey took three for 20 and Saibh Young captured three for 21.

The national women's team has had a successful season, demolishing Pakistan in a series of one-day internationals and in a Test match inside two days, before going on to defeat England A. Admittedly, the Pakistanis, with every respect, were hardly out of the top cricketing drawer, but all the same, the form and enthusiasm of the Irish players must be enormously encouraging for national coach John Wills, as he prepares next for Zealand and the World Cup at the end of the year.

Clearly, there are many fine players in the national squad, as was underlined in the cup final last Friday. But how much better would the members of the Ireland team be overall were they to play together regularly, say on a weekly basis?

This is an important matter which is being examined at the moment, the idea being that the national women's team would compete in men's competitive cricket, for example, in the Leinster Cricket Union's Senior III or Middle A leagues. The Holland women's team has already taken this step, and plays in the national men's league at fourth division level.

"Overall, I think it's an excellent idea and it might well be the way forward", says Wills. "But there may be difficulties in implementing it - for instance, the players' midweek and weekend commitments to their own women's clubs would have to be taken into consideration."

But, it may be argued, the absence of their top players might be actually good for women's club cricket. The leading players, after all, tend to dominate matches, as was very much the case at Malahide; their absence would not only help to balance the competitive scales, but would also make room in club sides for up-and-coming players.

Meanwhile, former international batsman Enda McDermott, now president of Clontarf, has some salient points to make in the club's programme on the overs restriction on bowlers in competitive cricket.

"In the Lewis Traub League it is 10 overs per bowler, in the cup 12 overs per bowler and in the Whitney Moore & Keller league 15 overs per bowler. I contend the limitation on bowlers in these matches is leading to a deterioration in the standard of both bowling and batting and that this is being reflected in the performance of the national side," writes McDermott.

Cricket in Dublin is now a batting game, McDermott opines, contending that top batsmen keep at bay the one or two good bowlers in the opposing attack, and then demolish the back-up men.

McDermott added: "The best bowlers should be allowed to bowl as many overs as their captain deems desirable, and that way the best batsmen would compete and be tested on their ability against the top bowlers for as long as possible."