Friday 14 June 2013

10 Things that will happen if Ireland win the 2015 World Cup

Ireland cricket team has been making quite the right noises for some years. From the victory against Pakistan in 2007 world cup, famous win over England and recently a very good series against Pakistan again. It is of no doubt that they are much above the other associates and many people want them to be elevated to test status. With more exposure they can soon join the best in the world. Now what will happen if in 2015 they win the world? Can they, I think with a few improvements they can but what will be the consequences?

1. England team will have all Irish line up for Next World Cup
The England team has a habit of poaching players specially from South Africa, and sometimes from Ireland and Zimbabwe. The England team will be hosting the 2019 World Cup so to be safe they would want to have all the Irish players in their line-up. How will they safeguard the same? Well it is quite simple they have a ICC rule for it. A player can play for a Non Test Nation (Ireland) & Next Day play for a Test Nation (England). But that player after playing for England would have to wait for 4 years to go back to Ireland. Surprised, well that is our ICC

All England would need to do ensure that every Irish player plays for them immediately and till next world cup they cannot play for Ireland!!!
Like Ed Joyce, whole Ireland team expected to wear blue's!!!!

2. Triple heart attack- BCCI, ECB & CA Chiefs
Well don't be surprised. These are the 3 people who are still in the colonial mindset and want cricket to stay that way. Their years of effort would go for a toss. So what can we expect, probably a shock of their life and a heart attack

3. World Cup will be reduced to 4 nations
There would be talk around the people in Test Nations of the useless format of the 2015 World Cup and how it somehow favored weak team like Ireland to take advantage of Rain, some one off matches and somehow win the world cup. There will be talks to giving the world cup it's right size and not the huge 2 month drag format.
A 10 team 2019 world cup would not satisfy them because the number of matches has not reduced. So a perfect representative World Cup of 4 Nations - India, Australia & England get automatic entry and 1 spot open for rest of the World. After all it is a World Cup and representation of World is required (Pun Intended)

4. India, Aus, Eng get super member status
Getting Cricket on the right path would be very much required. These 3 countries who contribute 95% of the money want their money to be safeguarded and threaten to go on their own. Under pressure the boards agree to the same and these 3 get super member status. From the next world cup (Which is 4 nation as we remember) they get an direct entry. For T20 World Cup, they get directly into the Semi's. For Test World Cup, no other country is worthy of playing it and is 3 team closed affair.
Well cricket is where it should be, back to colonial times as the Big 3 wanted.

5. David Cameroon Government Falls
With the Paddies winning core English game their is uproar in England. They watched with pain when Windies won it. Then land of Seditious Fakir(India) won it, they still accepted it. Aussies winning meant raging people. The Colonial outposts Pakistan and Sri Lanka winning had the pot almost full. But now it was the next neighbor and people would not be able to face such a site. The country is upset at England not being able to save it's culture and the huge protests force government to fall

6. North Ireland chooses to leave United Kingdom
This win gives a new hope in North Ireland. They no longer want to be associated with the Main Island since they are even better than them in Cricket. Hence it is decided and North Ireland chooses to leave UK

7. IPL finally gets Kevin O'Brien
Suddenly he is wanted by all the teams. The IPL teams line up for him and he finally makes his IPL debut. In fact KOB get's so much popular that so many products are behind him to be doing commercials for them


8. Ireland get it's first World Cup
They have not won it in Rugby Union or League, they have not done it in Football. Gaelic Football doesn't have a World Cup. So this would be a first World Cup for Ireland.


9. Irish Whiskey Ahoy, Ireland a Indian Tourist Hotspot
Suddenly there would be a big craze for Irish Whiskey in India.

Rumor would be people who drink it have sudden rise to power. There would be talks of Ireland as a magical land, and suddenly Indians would be visiting Ireland for Holidays.

Then there would be few who would realize the beauty of Ireland after all it will be all in news for all the reasons and would want to visit it

10. Wales cricket team is formed
Till now the Welsh ignored the fact that they play as part of England. Suddenly with Ireland winning the World Cup, the Welsh realize that they infact are a older cricket playing nation, they have more clubs, they have more players, better infrastructure and if Ireland can do it, they surely can. In an overnight session, Wales Parliament passes a motion to separate from England Cricket team

This article has been written in light humor and does not intent to hurt the feeling of anyone. It wishes to highlight some irony's in World Cricket. Kindly read it for fun and not get serious behind it :) Enjoy

Wednesday 5 June 2013

A Separate Wales Team

Cricket has been a game given by Britain to most of the established teams. However one of the most conspicuous absence from International cricket has been a Wales Cricket Team. It is surprising because we see other members of United Kingdom like Ireland(N Ireland plays as part of Ireland) and Scotland also playing and having decent standards. It becomes even more surprising when we get to know that channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey have their own separate teams!!

When we look at other sports Wales has it's own separate team. The English Wales rivalry is well known in both Rugby Union and League. Wales also has it's separate team in other sports like Football, Hockey or Basketball.

So that brings us to a question what about Wales team? Well to start with Wales are represented in cricket. How, the England team we know that plays is actually not a England team but rather a England and Wales Team. Yes and the Board ECB is actually England and Wales Cricket Board with W surprisingly ommitted

It is not like Wales never had a team. Infact Wales team used to play against visiting teams like New Zealand, South Africa and West Indies during 20's & 30's. They infact have managed to defeat West Indies in the past. Wales also participated in the 1979 ICC trophy. They did very well in the group winning 2 matches, losing 1 and 1 match abandoned against the Sri Lanka, who narrowly piped them on Run Rate to qualify for the Semi Finals.

There always have been demand for a separate Wales team. The treatment given by ECB (With W missing) is not appreciated in Wales. Lately the demand for a Wales team are growing louder with the issue being raised in the Welsh Parliament. However can a Wales team actually be successful. There are many factors which suggest a affirmative answer.

To start with the domestic number of players in Wales is higher than both for that of Ireland and Scotland. Glamorgan the County team representing Wales has won the county championship 3 times while Ireland, Scotland, Denmark and Netherlands who have taken part in county could not even come close to such performances.

Wales also have got the infrastructure in form of the Swalec stadiums which is one of the 12 stadiums of England. Not only this a Wales team when last played had actually defeated England and Welsh Player like Simon Jones was instrumental in helping England win the Ashes.

With such good prospects I expect the Welsh team to actually do very well internationally and can easily challenge the likes of teams like Bangladesh, Zimbabwe,Ireland or Scotland. A Wales team can also open the door's for a Euro Cup in which England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland & Netherlands can take part.

However a separate Welsh team would not come without challenges. Firstly it puts the risk of losing funding as ECB would not be sharing rough 2 M$ of annual funding it gives to it's counties. Secondly the Swalec stadium would also lose as it will lose lucrative matches like Ashes, and England international matches (Like it is one of the 3 stadiums for Champions trophy). Thirdly it would mean Glamorgan moving out of county championship as it happened with Scotland after they left England Team. Finally Wales would have to form it's own domestic structure and like Ireland would have risk of it's players moving to England for better prospects
Glamorgan playing a County match. Can we see the county players wearing a national jersey soon?

As the move for a separate Wales team would be supported by Government some funding from Government is expected. Besides the regular ICC funding Wales would be easily available for TAPP funding. Some private funding is also expected and rivalry in the British Isles against Ireland and Scotland can definitely get some level of sponsorships

Finally to have a quality set up is a challenge faced by all the European teams like Ireland, Scotland and Netherlands is quite similar. Some teams to start with have formed a first class tournament. Ireland has already started a 3 team First Class tournament and so did Scotland with a 2 team tournament. Netherlands has been having a annual North V South matches. The key would be as it the case with Rugby, the 4 nations can come together and form a 10 Team first class tournament (3 Teams each From Wales and Ireland & 2 Teams each From Scotland and Netherlands). This can in provide a quality domestic cricket for teams and also source of income for the home boards.

In the circumstances going in Wales I expect Wales team would be formed soon. Hopefully it is formed before the 2015 World Cup so that it can be in the process to reach the 2019 World and gain ODI status for future. The team would face many challenges but I am sure would have been the case in other sports. Let's hope to see the rise of another good teams in cricket soon.