Ashes 2013
England’s young squad hope to avoid
embarrassment
September 3rd
[09:00 CEST]
Before even thinking about Australia, England’s young guns, missing the five
players from the Ashes squad who are rested after the tough Ashes summer, have
to see off an Ireland team made up, almost exclusively, of their county
colleagues.
England’s
team is made up of a number of players who are on the fringes of the Test side and
in the ODI set-up, most of them still young, and who know that good
performances with greatly enhance their chances of lucrative central contracts
and tours, plus a sprinkling of emerging players such as Gary Ballance who have
been in exceptional form this season. For England this is an opportunity to
give a game to some of the players such as Finn, Rankin, Carberry, Taylor and
Tredwell who will be needed at some stage and are part of England’s strength in
depth, while seeing what players such as Overton, Stokes and Jordan can do. Not
everyone is happy that England are resting players, but the same squad will
play against Australia in the ODIs that start on Friday. England play their
first fixture in Australia on October 31st and some of the players
who have already played 10 Tests in 2013 and face five more by the end of the
Christmas season, do need a break.
Make no
mistake though, this is a game against a decent side who are more than capable
of winning if England have a bad day. Were England to lose it would be seen as
a massive embarrassment, rather than being a deserved success for a strong and
increasingly professional Irish outfit who can justifiable claim to be as good
as, or better than, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.
Even a lot of England fans would like to see Ireland do well in this fixture as they search for some way to get Test cricket in the future. Ireland’s problem is two-fold. First, the ICC is a delicate balance between the Asian and non-Asian nations right now. Not all interests are happy at the thought that another country may come in to alter that balance. Similarly, there is some concern that adding another weak Test side to join Zimbabwe and the too rapidly promoted Bangladesh would dilute the Test programme (and the lucrative TV money) too much, although the people who advocate this line most strenuously are the ones who do not want to affect the political balance in the ICC. Either way, obstacles are put in the way of Ireland who have done far more that Sri Lanka or Bangladesh had done in international cricket before their promotion (Zimbabwe was a slightly different case as it already had an established First Class programme in place for its players, first through the Currie Cup and then through its own inter-provincial tournament).
Right now, Ireland’s biggest single step is to convince the BCCI that it deserves promotion and will not rock the boat if promoted. That is going to be a very tricky task.
Even a lot of England fans would like to see Ireland do well in this fixture as they search for some way to get Test cricket in the future. Ireland’s problem is two-fold. First, the ICC is a delicate balance between the Asian and non-Asian nations right now. Not all interests are happy at the thought that another country may come in to alter that balance. Similarly, there is some concern that adding another weak Test side to join Zimbabwe and the too rapidly promoted Bangladesh would dilute the Test programme (and the lucrative TV money) too much, although the people who advocate this line most strenuously are the ones who do not want to affect the political balance in the ICC. Either way, obstacles are put in the way of Ireland who have done far more that Sri Lanka or Bangladesh had done in international cricket before their promotion (Zimbabwe was a slightly different case as it already had an established First Class programme in place for its players, first through the Currie Cup and then through its own inter-provincial tournament).
Right now, Ireland’s biggest single step is to convince the BCCI that it deserves promotion and will not rock the boat if promoted. That is going to be a very tricky task.
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