TIME TO CHANGE THE INTERPROS

I’ve been fortunate to watch a wide variety of cricket this year. I’ve watched mediocre England lose to even more mediocre West Indies at the Kensington Oval then seen them thrash Australia on TV in the Ashes.

I’ve been at four exciting Caribbean Premier League games, watched two days of Ireland defeating United Arab Emirates at Malahide, suffered the agony and the ecstasy of the Twenty20 Qualifying Tournament, helped the North Down members host an entertaining NCU Cup Final in difficult weather conditions at The Green, attended around 20 club matches at every level including Twenty20 and ladies cricket.

I also spent a day watching the Knights versus the Warriors Interpro’ match at the Meadow, Downpatrick earlier in the season.

All courtesy of semi-retirement and a love of cricket. It would difficult to pick out the game that gave me the most enjoyment, but easy to identify the game that gave me the least.

We have to accept in Ireland that the weather is an ongoing challenge, even if this year has been particularly bad. We know there’s more fun playing in sunshine than battling against the wind, rain and cold.

However, we can’t blame the weather for all our ailments and equally, we have to accept that we can’t solve them all in a flash. The ongoing challenges at club level are well documented and if we believe all that we read about the management and delivery of representative cricket then the challenges are just as big at the higher level.

However, there is a big difference between the two scenarios as the game at the higher level is professional on and off the field, and we should expect more. My biggest disappointment this year was the interprovincial match at Downpatrick because neither team provided much entertainment on the day I attended, promotion of the game was poor, the crowd was non-existent and both captains took the easy option to end the war of austerity rather than gamble on an exciting finish.

Unfortunately this culture has continued throughout the competition and if one or both teams set out their stall not to lose rather than play to win, then it is likely to continue.

The Interpros as they stand haven’t delivered, and while it is an important stepping-stone from club cricket to the national team, it doesn’t deliver across a number of sectors. Only the National Coach and his selectors can determine its overall benefit to their thinking and their views going forward are very important.

If the tournament is a necessary tool to strengthen the case for test cricket then that’s another good reason for having it, but surely if it is to have any real value to Irish cricket it has to be more productive and entertaining?

The absence of spectators means that people are already letting their feet do the talking. And that includes cricketers. What chance have we got in attracting spectators to representative games if cricketers themselves don’t go?

Why don’t cricketers go to Interpro’ games any more and what do we have to do to attract cricketers to travel short journeys to watch Ireland games in their vicinity?

This writer doesn’t have all the answers, but he does accept something is seriously wrong and it is time to address it at the highest level. First and foremost a determination has to be made regarding the purpose of the competition and then everything else should be built into achieving that objective.

If there are several objectives then they have to be accommodated. There is no option to do nothing. There are plenty of ideas floating around and perhaps the views of people outside the ‘organization’ should be canvassed?

For example, is the Interprovincial structure along union lines ideal for the modern game?

Would a county structure work better and create some passion and competitive spirit? It works in England and it works for the GAA. We allow overseas professionals to play even when they can’t play for Ireland, yet we ignore quality players who have moved clubs and play in another region.

The best opening attack in NCU cricket is Johnny Thompson and Steve Dunn and the in-form slow bowler is Trevor Britton.

This North-West trio are professionals at CI in the NCU area and haven’t been selected by either union. Is this logical?

If we have the best players competing in the Interprovincial games we should expect it to produce the best cricket.

If it isn’t performing then it needs to be re-visited, restructured and perhaps re-invented. It shouldn’t continue with mediocre promotion and poor entertainment.

Time for change.

Clarence Hiles