Ireland

[essex boy]

Should we playing them immediately before a main test summer series? I get wanting them to get exposure and grow the game but to me it left England woefully under prepared for the Ashes. As an example, some of our batters didn't even get a bat ala Bairstow and our fielding in the first two tests resembled club cricket. Australia by example looked match sharp and we were playing catch up from test 1 to the present day

How about a 4 day game against England Lions but mix the sides up so Wood is bowling to Root as an example or Tongue/Ahmed is bowling to Stokes

 

[Inside Forward]

It wasn’t ideal preparation, especially when you consider that Australia warmed up for the Ashes with a confidence boosting win over India at The Oval. People saying that we should be doing more to help the likes of Ireland is all well and good but then they didn’t take it too seriously either given that they rested their best bowler.

The best way to help Ireland is not by them playing one off Tests against England every 4 years. It’s by giving them a bigger share of ICC revenues instead of most of it being gobbled up by greedy India.

 

[Paddy O'Dors]

The best way to help Ireland is not by them playing one off Tests against England every 4 years. It’s by giving them a bigger share of ICC revenues instead of most of it being gobbled up by greedy India.

Don't they generate most of the income for the ICC and take back a smaller share than what they contribute?

Ireland got test match status on the back of having a golden(ish) generation of players for them. Sadly they're going through a bit of a trough atm.

 

[GordonMuchallNo1Fan]

said at the time it was utterly pointless and stand by that view. better bowling attacks in the lower parts of division 2.

 

[LynchMob]

Not perfect preparation, but the likes of New Zealand or South Africa would not come here for a one off test match due to costs, so a game against Ireland was the only option! The other problem is the way the FTECB have scheduled the season with the 20-20's in June and the (spit) 100's in August along with the one day comp, so this series has been rushed!

 

[chunkyshanhawk53]

It was a poor choice got build up, but we do need to encourage the development of cricket.

Every touring side to England should also play a two test series in Ireland. Especially important with the decline of the West Indies (borderline worrying), no real Zimbabwe side and a SL side where their generational players have now retired

England v India v Australia gets boring after a while

Don’t get me started on 4 day tests, the patronising twats

 

[Paddy O'Dors]

It was a poor choice got build up, but we do need to encourage the development of cricket.

Every touring side to England should also play a two test series in Ireland. Especially important with the decline of the West Indies (borderline worrying), no real Zimbabwe side and a SL side where their generational players have now retired

England v India v Australia gets boring after a while

Don’t get me started on 4 day tests, the patronising twats

I think SL are on the up. Granted it was ODI's and against lower ranked teams but they looked decent in the recent WC qualifiers. Won pretty much every one of their games at a canter.

 

[Inside Forward]

Don't they generate most of the income for the ICC and take back a smaller share than what they contribute?

Ireland got test match status on the back of having a golden(ish) generation of players for them. Sadly they're going through a bit of a trough atm.

Through sheer size of population yes. However they already make so much money through things like the IPL that they don’t need to be given such a sizeable sum by the ICC.

It’s not exactly growing the game is it? When you have so many associate nations getting peanuts whilst the established nations hoover up the vast majority of the revenue.

It will get to the point where it’s just England, Australia and India playing an endless round of Tests against each other which will be the death of the game.

 

[Paddy O'Dors]

Through sheer size of population yes. However they already make so much money through things like the IPL that they don’t need to be given such a sizeable sum by the ICC.

It’s not exactly growing the game is it? When you have so many associate nations getting peanuts whilst the established nations hoover up the vast majority of the revenue.

It will get to the point where it’s just England, Australia and India playing an endless round of Tests against each other which will be the death of the game.

I don't think it'll be the death of test match cricket. We'll still be playing short overseas series against NZ, SL, SA and Pakistan at the touristy venues cos of the revenue it brings them. But I doubt we'll ever see another nation granted test status.

I think the shorter formats of the game will grow, particularly T20. 20 teams in the WC finals means there's a good opportunity for most nations to reach them (Germany, Italy and Denmark aren't far off) but there needs to be a big carrot in the finals in the form of decent prize money for national associations to invest.