CRICKET: Although Ireland's cricketers still have two matches to play in the 2004 season (a couple of one-day internationals against Bangladesh in Stormont and Limavady on Sunday and Monday), attention is already shifting to 2005 and what will be an extremely important and pressurised season for Irish cricket.
Ireland are expected to qualify for the 2007 World Cup by coming in the top five at next July's ICC Trophy, but if they fail, it could set back the progress of the national team many years. The older members of the team, the likes of Jason Molins, Peter Gillespie, Jeremy Bray, Trent Johnston, Naseer Shoukat and Kyle McCallan, might well be unable to stomach another six years of waiting for the chance to appear in a World Cup finals and bow out of representative cricket.
Qualification, on the other hand, would do wonders for the game here. Seeing an Ireland team take on Pakistan or England in the World Cup would certainly make the task of our development officers easier. Also, the experience the younger players would gain in the Caribbean and in the seasons leading up to it, would mean that Molins, Gillespie, Bray et al. could retire happy in the knowledge their mantle had been taken up.
The match schedule for the 2005 ICC Trophy was announced last week with Ireland down to face Bermuda in their first game on Friday, July 1st.
Although the venues have not yet been confirmed, we know the group stages will all take place in the North while the various semi-finals, finals and play-offs will happen in Dublin.
Also in Ireland's group are the USA, United Arab Emirates, Denmark and Uganda, all teams they would expect to beat. That said, at the 2001 ICC Trophy, under Ken Rutherford, Ireland lost to the Americans, the UAE and Denmark so Rutherford's successor, Adrian Birrell, will be taking nothing for granted.
There are two groups of five teams. Each play the other four in their group. The top two go through to the semi-finals, and automatically qualify for the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies. The rest play off for the one remaining qualification place. Simple.
The other group contains the Netherlands, Scotland, Namibia, Oman, Canada and the winners of a repêchage event that includes the likes of Kuwait, Italy, Nepal, Qatar, Fiji, the Cayman Islands, Zambia and Papua New Guinea. The overall final of the competition will take place in Castle Avenue on Wednesday, July 13th.
There has been some disquiet in domestic cricket circles that the matches being staged here will impinge further on an already packed local schedule. As it turns out, however, only one weekend in the NCU and North-West regions and another in Leinster will be affected with at least four grounds being used in Dublin and at least six north of the border.
What will hit some clubs a lot more than the ICC Trophy will be the other commitments of their international players. Clubs with members on the national squad may have to account for their absence as Ireland plan a packed early-season fixture list. This includes at least one C&G Trophy match, a week playing in England against county opposition, the Inter-Continental Cup, three one-day games against the MCC and perhaps a one-day international against the world champions Australia, who will be in the Northern Hemisphere for the formality of retaining the Ashes.
Assuming the Regional Challenge series will also be running next year, it looks like 2005 could be an even busier year for our top players, some of whom have rightly questioned an onerous 2004 schedule that has left them exhausted. Mind you, if it means they get the opportunity to be the first Irishmen to play on the biggest one-day stage of all in the next World Cup, then it is surely worth a few tired limbs.
