HORSES FOR COURSES NEEDED TO CHANGE THE CULTURE

With the Twenty20 World Cup Preliminary matches just around the corner it might be a good time to look at Ireland’s position and status in this type of cricket.

Looking at the level of the teams involved and Ireland’s terrific record over the past decade in Associate Countries’ preliminary competitions it would be a huge setback if we didn’t qualify for the actual competition in India next year.

However, has Ireland moved with the times in this rapidly evolving discipline given the way countries like England and Australia have adapted and at the other end of the scale the way West Indies test cricket has been decimated by the Twenty20 exodus.

It is a fact that there are very few players who are exceptional at test, ODI and Twenty20 cricket, and because of the demands in all forms of the game it is likely their numbers will get smaller and smaller in the future.

Australia was probably the first test nation to select specialist limited overs players in ODI cricket and then by extension into Twenty20 cricket. England has followed their lead with players like Eoin Morgan and Ravi Bopara losing their test places for the limited overs code and moving in the other direction test captain Alastair Cook losing his limited overs place because his game is more suited to the longer version.

Cricket journalists and statisticians have been slow to join the culture of Twenty20 cricket as many still talk about averages when in reality they mean nothing as it is scoring rates for batsmen and runs conceded for bowlers that rule the roost in fast food cricket.

The struggles in West Indies cricket cannot be blamed on the emergence of Twenty20 cricket, but the exodus of the top players to lucrative IPL and Big Bash tournaments hasn’t helped the situation. As the new-look West Indies team under Phil Simmons took a severe thrashing from Australia in the recent two-test series brilliant players like Chris Gayle, Keiron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, Devon Smith, Darren Sammy and Andre Russell were not in the picture because of their Twenty20 contracts.

It’s hard to fault them chasing the big dollars, but it has come at a severe cost to West Indies cricket. Gayle is probably the best player in the world in all three disciplines, and he is also a huge crowd puller because of the way he plays. His absence has lessened the interest in test cricket around the islands.

Ireland doesn’t have the same issues because we don’t have a lot of time cricket, but we still need to be cognizant of the different requirements of each discipline given that the ultimate aim of Cricket Ireland is to gain test status.

The selection policy in recent years has been to stick with the same squad for all codes and let the players adapt, but are we missing a trick given that there may be players out there who excel in Twenty20 cricket, but not in the longer code? Are we ignoring their talent because the road to International Twenty20 cricket in Ireland is to get into the main squad and then hope the National Coach and his selectors deem you good enough for the limited overs game.

However, the Twenty20 game demands a different culture from conventional cricket and thrives on aggression, free spirit, improvisation, fitness, entertainment and thinking outside the box. After all, up until recent times, who would have thought the best place to put your ace fielders was on the boundary?

Most, but not all, of the Ireland players are skilled in Twenty20 cricket and although it may be inconceivable to leave out any of the established stars in the longer code, it is the way to go if we are to get the best players on the pitch. Ed Joyce is a good example and given that he has retired from Twenty20 cricket he’s a good person to identify.

Ed is without doubt our best batsman in conventional cricket and perhaps ODI as well, but his style does not fit comfortably into Twenty20 cricket and he’s got fitness challenges that come with an ageing body. But I doubt if Ed would have been left out of our Twenty20 squad had he still been available as we still have the mindset of conventional cricket.

The great Waringstown team of the 1970s understood and played limited overs cricket to perfection. They believed in containment when bowling and their batsmen could control a runs chase with precision or set targets with calculated aggression at the most strategic times. They were decades before their time.

When Michael Reith joined North Down for three years in the early 1980s he changed the team’s culture and understanding of limited overs cricket, perhaps best illustrated when he hugged one opening bowler with glee at the start of a key league game after he had bowled five maiden overs. “Utopia, Utopia!” Michael bellowed because he understood the value of cheap overs and that they were just as important as wickets.

In a similar vein in NCU cricket Neil Russell the Instonians captain adopted a style of going for his shots from the outset and was a revelation when he got into his stride. He could not be contained and had the perfect game for Twenty20 cricket. Russeller was before his time, and if he was ten years younger he’s the sort of player who would add another dimension to top level Twenty20 cricket.

We need to move with the times and identify the available genuine Twenty20 players and select along the lines of what is needed to win in this type of cricket and not just select the best Ireland squad and let the players adapt. There may be casualties, but over the next decade we are going to see Twenty20 Ireland players that don’t play for their country at any other level.

It is the way cricket is going, as this is what television and spectators want. They may not become millionaires like Messrs. Gayle, Pollard, Sammy and Bravo, but they will make an impact once the profile of Irish cricket increases across the globe. But the irony is that the profile will only rise when we reach test status.

It’s a Catch-22 scenario!