I'm delighted that both Ireland and Netherlands have qualified for the 20/20 World finals in England next year. There is no finer sight at a cricket match than seeing a row of attractive young ladies all wearing Dutch caps!

Scotland's defeat of Kenya now means that Kenya haven't made it to the finals. Their position of being next in line for full membership of the ICC is in real trouble. Inter Continental and European Champions Ireland is now the one banging on the door of the ICC for acceptance to the next level.

Nobody for one moment is suggesting that Ireland is ready for Test status, or that it could support a domestic first class league. In fact I would argue that they never will be able to support a domestic first class game because they don't need to. England already has 18 first class counties and the way forward for Ireland is either to produce a team that could play in the County Championship or simply send its cricketers to the other counties. Bearing in mind that the ECB subsidises the county game then it is unlikely to accept Scotland and Ireland into the mix.

Despite the support of the ECB, increasingly the county cricket clubs are run as entities in their own right. This follows both the English Premiership models for football and especially rugby. In other words, despite a certain amount of control from the centre the counties are left to make their own decisions on what is best for them. At the moment they are spending their resources on home grown talent, overseas professionals and Kolpak players. Overseas professionals and Kolpak players are expensive and home grown talent takes time and effort to bring them through.

If Ireland happens to be producing talented young cricketers, and fast tracking them by exposing them to International cricket through the Associate program, then that is a very useful source for the counties to turn to. The players are classed as locals and do not use up any overseas quotas. They are a cheap source of labour. The counties increasingly will snap up the best talent available to Ireland.

Recently however people have been getting really hot under the collar about this arrangement. The decision of Eoin Morgan to play for his county ahead of his country has enraged some people who have been making calls for him to never play for Ireland again. I'm sorry but that is complete nonsense. Others have said it doesn't matter as it is only a matter of time until Morgan plays for England. Well that's still a little premature.

My point is this (and my views haven't changed since we were all saying the same about Ed Joyce), put yourself in their shoes. Playing for Ireland is a huge commitment and at the moment the remuneration levels are not exactly enticing. Playing for Middlesex provides an opportunity to earn a lot of money playing cricket and provide a career. Playing for England provides an opportunity to be earning the sort of money where you could be secure for life. If you are a professional sportsman it is a no-brainer. You go where you believe you can find the most financial security and you aspire to play at the highest level. At the moment that is not with Ireland.

To be honest this shouldn't upset people. Eoin Morgan made an extremely difficult decision, as did William Porterfield before him in an earlier match. They made decisions in the best interest of their own careers. As you and I do in our working lives all the time. The fact is that until the ICC accept Ireland as a full member then Ireland will always be an amateur/semi-professional set up. There will never be the opportunities to earn decent money. As such our best young cricketers will continue to have to make the decision to choose between their heart (Ireland) and their head (County). It is a fact of life we have to accept.

However if this is the status quo for the foreseeable future then it isn't necessarily a bad thing. The improvements of the players who have gone across the water are plain to see. We simply cannot offer our players the exposure to a higher level that is needed to improve their game and if we want to grace further World Cups and compete at them we must try to get more players into the county scene. This is how it works with football. The Republic of Ireland football team is not made up of players from the League of Ireland but from the professional ranks in England where they are exposed to a better standard of football.

Cricket Ireland should set a goal of getting 2 players eligible for Ireland into every county. This would provide a pool of 36 professional cricketers to pick from. Sure it may hurt our game in the short term but increasingly Ireland is involved in matches outside our ‘summer'.

Cricket Ireland should be ensuring those players are available for all those ‘winter' matches. We should be encouraging other countries to sign these players to play in their domestic leagues in our 'winter' to continue their development as cricketers.

In fact, reducing the amount of matches during our summer would take some of the pressure off the English based players. Agreeing before the season starts with the counties which games they are released for and ensuring their place is guaranteed on return would end all this County v Country debate. The debacle against New Zealand has put Ireland back and thankfully the ICC and ECB recognised the problem. Working together with the counties can be of benefit to both parties and ensure it isn't repeated.

Ultimately it is continued good performances on the higher stage will bring the day about where Ireland can have a professional future for our players. At the 20/20 finals Ireland should pick their best available team and I hope that will include Eoin Morgan.