WOOOOOWWWWWW
Next week, at the World T20 qualifying
tournament to be held in Ireland and Scotland, Mooney wants to wear
another strip of fabric - a black armband to signify the death of
Associate cricket. Last week he railed against the "disgrace" of an ICC
decision to cut its World Cup to just 10 teams.
At
the ICC's annual meeting in Dubai, the hopes and dreams of millions of
youngsters born outside the sport's traditional powers were not even
considered, with a promise to reconsider the earlier decision broken.
The
eight big boys get their free pass while the two weakest full members,
plus 85 associates and affiliates, scrap over two more. The sport's
rulers have, naturally, rigged the qualifying system, and the play-offs
will be staged in Bangladesh, where playing conditions are alien to
almost every other competing nation. That leaves just one 2019 spot for
Ireland to battle for with Zimbabwe, Scotland, Afghanistan and all the
other nations desperate to get a chance to do what the Irish did at
three successive World Cups.
On
the surface it seems a strange decision for a sport which has recently
trumpeted its desire to become the second biggest in the world, and
whose chief executive Dave Richardson insisted: "The ICC World Cup 2015
was the most popular ever played. The venues were world class, the host
cities were world class and the two countries delivered a world-class
tournament which was watched by more people around the world than ever
before."
In response, the event
has been cut next time from 14 teams to 10. Put that beside football,
which has had 32 finalists since 1998 (Michel Platini says he will
expand it to 40 if he gets the chance), and rugby, which increased its
World Cup to 20 teams in 1999.
"All
the other sports are expanding their World Cups and we don't see why we
should be shrinking ours," says Ireland batsman Niall O'Brien. "It's a
bit sad that potentially Ireland have played in their last World Cup."
But
in the strange world of global sports administration, ICC is the
strangest beast of all. With one hand it encourages the game outside the
top rank through competition and development programmes, while with the
other it lops off the heads of any country that performs too well and
threatens its precious full members.
That
has been Cricket Ireland's dilemma for several years, and it is clear
it will never be elevated to full membership. That will be forever stuck
at 10 until the international game inevitably withers and dies without
new blood. ICC is now no longer an administrator, but a global body with
a corporate model designed to fill the pockets of its controlling
shareholder, India, with the connivance of England and Australia.
"The
only information that I've had from the Big Three was that it was
extremely difficult to unpick the TV rights and to change things," says
Ross McCollum, Cricket Ireland chairman. India are guaranteed nine games
at the next World Cup thanks to their $2.5b deal with Star Sports India
and Middle East. The eight-year contract also includes the 2023 World
Cup, which will be presumably just as difficult to unpick.
It's
all terribly disheartening for the players and supporters who will be
helping Ireland over the next two weeks as they strive to qualify for
the 16-team T20 World Cup. The tournament is the first major event to be
held here since the smaller-scale 2008 qualifier which was staged over
four days at Stormont.
This event
has two groups of seven, split between Scotland and Ireland, where games
will be held at Stormont, Bready, Clontarf and Malahide. The knock-out
stage will be held at the Dublin venues.
On
the face of it, qualifying should not present any great difficulties
for Ireland. Home conditions count for a lot in cricket, and green Irish
pitches are just as alien to many of the teams as those in Bangladesh.
Six teams qualify for India 2016, and Ireland have never finished
outside the top two in four previous qualifiers.
Ireland
have also been favoured with Pool A, while the three other Associates
who played Down Under are in Pool B, along with the Netherlands, who
hammered Ireland in Bangladesh last year.
The
danger sides are Nepal, who have real stars in batsman Paras Khadka and
all-rounder Sagar Pun, and Hong Kong, who beat Bangladesh at the last
T20 finals. The other sides, Namibia, Papua New Guinea, USA and Jersey,
will likely be battling for the final quarter-final place.
The
T20 interprovincials were run off early this year to facilitate Ireland
coach John Bracewell's planning, and the big winner was Merrion's
all-rounder Tyrone Kane. The 20-year-old was player of the tournament
and when he was given his first cap against Scotland last month he
seized the chance, taking three wickets with his first five deliveries
as an international.
"Tyrone
jumped the queue", said Bracewell. "He genuinely put down a marker in
all parts of the game: his fielding was outstanding, he bowled
brilliantly, because he bowled to a plan, which was straight, and batted
really intelligently going into the death overs."
Kane
has come into a team that must do without Ed Joyce and Tim Murtagh, who
have backed off the short format to prolong their careers at the longer
games. Ireland lost two warm-ups against Scotland recently but couldn't
call on leading batsmen Paul Stirling, William Porterfield, Niall
O'Brien and Gary Wilson, who will all start against Namibia on Friday.
Ireland's
bowlers, like most sides, suffered at the hands of ultra-aggressive
batting at the 50-over World Cup and you can expect that approach to be
continued in this tournament. With bowlers limited to just four overs,
chances are few in games when preventing the opposition scoring are
crucial.
"In T20 you bowl in short bursts and if you can build pressure with dots you can take wickets," explains Kane.
"The
batters are getting better and the bowlers have to catch up", says
Bracewell. "But we have to get a bit craftier and see how we can work
out the conditions in our favour and who is going to be our best options
going into the tournament."
But
while Cricket Ireland cannot countenance anything less than
qualification for India 2016, that could be the last time Ireland check
in for a major ICC tournament. And as Mooney and whoever else he can
persuade wears that black armband in this week's qualifiers, the global
sport of cricket and its young stars face a future straight out of
George Orwell - a vision of an ICC boot stamping on Tyrone Kane's face,
forever.
