Failure to qualify in Toronto for the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, which now, happily, looks less likely, would be a major setback for Irish cricket, not least in terms of future sponsorship, marketing and the overall promotion of the game.
Yet, if the flourishing state of our underage cricket is a true yardstick, the future of the summer game here in Ireland looks secure.
July will be an extremely busy month for Ireland's underage cricketers, as well as for their coaches, managers and administrators. "This month brings the start of a very full youth representative programme, following a winter of intense preparation of indoor training," says Donal O'Sullivan, who is chairman of the Irish Cricket Union's youth committee as well as the honorary secretary of the Leinster Cricket Union's club schoolboy branch.
The programme includes tournaments at under-13, under-15, under-17 and under-19until Thursday next.
"The under-13 European Championship will be played in Holland from July 20th to 22nd," says O'Sullivan. "This will be the inaugural tournament at under-13 level, but in previous years Ireland participated in an under-13 festival in Edinburgh, involving Scotland, Durham and Cumbria."
Dave McGeehan, the Malahide CC captain and youth development officer, is coach to the national under-13 squad. The team manager is Michael Quinn.
Ireland won the under-15 European Championship in Holland last year. This time around, Ireland will host the competition for the third time, with matches against Holland at Limavady on July 27th, against Denmark at Bready the following day, and against Scotland at Eglinton on July 29th.
"The defence of our title should be helped by the fact that we have home advantage, especially in the North West, where the support for cricket is tremendous," says O'Sullivan. The tournament director is Ian Heaslett and the referee is Robin Glenn; former international Brendan "Ginger" O'Brien is the team manager and the coach is John Semple.
Ireland, then the host country, came very close last year to winning the under-17 European Championship, and with several of last season's successful under-15 players on board are expected to make a strong bid for the title when the competition is held in Denmark from July 20th to 22nd. The LCU's development officer, Brian O'Rourke, who coached the under-15s to success a year ago, is now at the under-17 helm, with Alan Neill the team manager.
Next month, the Ireland under-17 squad will travel to Eton College for a series of matches against English Cricket Board (ECB) sides.
