Stirling's form, Abbotstown update and youngsters coming through - Christmas mailbag

Your questions answered in a festive weekend long read

Photo by Rhodi Lopez on Unsplash

Strap in.

Fearing that no one reads this site and I wouldn’t get any submissions for the Christmas mailbag, it turns out you all sent in too many questions to get to and this post ended up being far longer than anticipated. I only do this for people to read it, so to get confirmation of your support was much appreciated.

Here it is - a first Q&A mailbag of what I hope is many. Some questions were along the same lines, so if I didn’t get to yours, that’s likely because it’s dealt with in a different question. If I still didn’t answer you, feel free to send an angry Tweet/email.

What follows is long, there’s a lot covered, but hopefully this is a good excuse when you need a break from family over the Christmas weekend.

Compliments of the season to all.

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Two topics I’d love to hear your take on: which players would you like to see debut for Ireland in 2024, and what role could they play in the team? If you had to bet, when, where, and against what opposition will Ireland get their first result (or win!) in men’s Tests? - Richard

For the men, it’s tough because most of those who I’d be curious about seeing have already been capped and subsequently dropped. For instance, someone like Neil Rock struggled in his first stint in international cricket but now whacks it everywhere for the Northern Knights.

In terms of uncapped players, top of the list for me is Gavin Hoey. He has an interesting story in that he was a fast bowler until an injury forced him to turn to spin, and he’s been more than useful. What has people excited is he bowls flat leg-spin, perfect for white ball games, and can score quickly with the bat.

He’s had middling results for the Lighting, albeit 6-fer in his last game ensured he ended the year on a high. He also had a decent, if unspectacular tour of Antigua with Emerging Ireland.

I think he’s the type of player you’d pick on potential of what he could be, rather than someone who has dominated domestic cricket. He could well get a run after the T20 World Cup.

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On the women’s side, there aren’t a whole lot of uncapped players banging down the door. Joanna Loughran is interesting because she’s a wicketkeeper, a position Ireland are trying to cover now Shauna Kavanagh and Mary Waldron have retired. Amy Hunter will be first choice but it’s worth looking at Loughran to see if she’s a genuine option.

For the sheer fun of it, I’d love to see Alice Tector play at some point soon. She’s young, but she’s impressed in the Super 3s and can’t be a million miles away from the squad. Yes, she’s yet another Tector, (brother of Harry, Jack and Tim). She’ll probably have the longest international career of all of them - and is the only fast bowler in the family.

Ireland’s best chance of a first Test win will come at home this summer. That’s all I’ll say for now…

Think Hoey should be selected for the tour against Afghanistan in place of Theo van Woerkom. Your thoughts?? - The Monster

Van Woerkom is a good player. He bowled well for the Knights this year and is more than capable of holding a bat, good at ticking over the strike while adding the odd boundary. An Alex Cusack-type batter, if you will.

That said, I don’t think there’s any point in picking him in the same side as George Dockrell. From what we’ve seen of him at international level, his left-arm spin isn’t markedly better and he certainly isn’t as strong an option with the bat.

When he was first picked for the T20 qualifiers in Scotland, he came in to replace the injured Gareth Delany. A senior figure told me TVW was only a brake glass in case of emergency player. They couldn’t risk a young spinner like Humphreys or Hoey in a qualifying event (especially after crashing and burning in the Zimbabwe qualifiers) and TVW had played enough professional cricket in New Zealand to be a solid option against the likes of Austria and Italy if needed. He was a back-up and didn’t play.

Cue my surprise when he was kept in the squad for India and England. Emergency option no more, he’s firmly part of Ireland’s plans. But should he be? Again, he doesn’t add a lot to a side that already has Dockrell in it. He’s clearly a useful squad player, handy injury cover and can bowl plenty of left-arm spin in the nets to a line-up that struggles against it. But is that limited on-pitch value worth blocking the development of a younger spinner? (TVW is 30, not old, but not young either).

I can still see him going to the UAE, purely because they tend not to pick Dockrell in Tests these days. They’ll also take an extra spinner given the conditions, likely a youngster. I would say White and Humphreys would be ahead of Hoey given they have played for Ireland. The pace Hoey bowls makes him more of a white ball option probably, but you could say the same of White, to be fair.

Hoey may well tour, but I can’t see him playing ahead of TVW.

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How do you think Malan is doing in the job? I haven’t been impressed overall. The series win against Zimbabwe was expected with all their injuries, not that much to be impressed with - Dan

I agree that, while the Zimbabwe wins were badly needed simply for morale after a difficult 12 months, it was an average enough Zimbabwe team. Their one world-class player, Sikandar Raza, missed the two T20s they lost through a ban while their other two major run scorers, Sean Williams and Craig Ervine, were injured for most of the tour.

As for Malan, it’s always hard to say how much a coach is responsible for form. He started off with a summer campaign where Ireland played well against excellent teams but couldn’t buy a win. He then led them on a best ever T20 World Cup run, and that leaves a lot of credit in the bank.

Plenty of that was used up during difficult tours of Asia and the disaster that was the ODI World Cup qualifiers.

Peering behind the curtain, Malan appears to be a slightly more intense character than his predecessor, Graham Ford, arguably the most laid-back, softly spoken man on the planet. Some players like that, others prefer a different style.

Malan is a big analysis/data guy, and is said to regularly communicate detailed plans to players. Again, some like that, others don’t. For example, I gather that Mark Adair loves consuming that type of information, whereas Josh Little has publicly stated that if an analyst sends him a scouting video he doesn’t watch it.

Malan has also himself said that sometimes he needs to take a step back from analysing every single detail of the game: “From my point of view I’ve got to make sure I actually look on from looking under every rock and I align our thinking a little bit earlier.”

It’s a coaching style that ensures Ireland are probably as well prepared for games from a data and match-ups point of view as they ever have been. When things are going well, great, the hard work is paying off and everyone is happy. When things are not going well, I can see a scenario where the intensity grates a little bit and some players just want to allowed to figure things out.

All of which is to say, everyone has different ways of doing things and there is no one right modus operandi. Has Malan done a good job? Based on results, the answer is yes and no.

Malan clearly feels hampered in terms of developing players. He said before the Zim series that Ireland doesn’t have a handle on its structures for bringing through players. It’s hard to do a good job if you don’t have the cattle.

Perhaps Ireland need to pick 5 bowlers, with a back up of Tector and Dockrell, from this series Campher, Adair, Delany, Young and Little and this would leave space for both Rock and Tucker in the XI - Barry O’Keefe

Ireland have been trying to find the right way of balancing their side for a while now - especially in T20. Option one is four frontline bowlers, Dockrell + Campher making up the fifth bowler’s quota and an extra batter. Option two is drop the extra batter, play a fifth bowler and only use Dockrell + Campher if absolutely needed.

They went with option two in the World Cup last year, reverted back to option one and the extra batter during the qualifiers in Scotland when Neil Rock played, and now have gone back to the five-bowler option since the India series in August.

That five bowler ploy sees a spinner plus Adair, Little, McCarthy and Young as the main attack. More often than not, Delany has to be that spinner because he’s good enough to bat at 7. Against India when he was injured and Ben White played, the batting line-up looked light.

It means Dockrell and Campher aren’t needed unless required or a favourable match-up presents itself. Ever since the Scotland game in the aforementioned T20 qualifiers, when Dockrell and Campher bowled a combined four overs for 66 runs, Ireland haven’t trusted them as the fifth-bowler tandem.

It’s a change of approach under Malan. Previous coach Graham Ford loved his bits and pieces cricketers, players who probably were not elite at any one thing but could scrape together enough runs or wickets between them to be competitive. Tyrone Kane and Stuart Thompson both played Test matches under Ford.

Malan doesn’t want to rely on those bits and pieces players, the likes of Campher and Dockrell, to bowl regular overs. Long term, it’s probably a ploy that works. Ireland need to develop five frontline bowlers who can consistently win them games. At this stage though, it’s hard to say they have that group of five.

Given how once every few months Campher has a magic spell in him, I wouldn’t look to limit him too much. Especially given Ireland don’t have five bowlers who are consistently excellent in T20, they may as well pick four, use Dockrell, Campher and even Tector to bowl the odd over of off-spin to a left-hander. Then they can pick an extra batter (a left-handed power hitter, anyone?) and be an ultra aggressive batting side that can chase down big totals.

For now, Malan is keen on the current balance. It’s a good idea in theory. Whether Ireland have the right players for it is another matter.

Could Harry Tector open, and move Paul Stirling down to 4 or 5? If Campher has the technique and temperament for the no. 3 spot in the ODIs, could he not open, although it is a big workload if he is to bowl his 4 overs too? - Ian Muldoon

I think Tector would ‘run a mile’ if you asked him to open. (He jokingly said this in an interview ahead of the Caribbean tour in 2022 when Stirling and Balbirnie both missed time with Covid.) He loves batting at four. In T20s, he should be at three but I wouldn’t go any higher than that. Campher at three in ODIs looks to be a decent option in the limited examples we’ve seen so far. There is an argument for Tector to go to three in ODIs as well: don’t overcomplicate things, get your best players facing as many deliveries as possible.

Stirling won’t move down. He’s never been a middle-order player. He’s Ireland’s best option for boundary scoring in the powerplay with the field up, even if he is in a bit of a slump with the bat.

As for Campher opening, again I don’t see it. Asking a middle order player to move up to three is still significantly different to moving him to open, as much as it might not seem it. I wouldn’t be too concerned about workload since he rarely bowls his full quota of overs in either T20 or ODIs these days.

Opinions on the policy to select passport players for the u19 World Cup? We saw how it backfired last time with Joshua Cox - Ryan Gillen

I think it’s fair to say that Ireland can’t afford to turn its noses up at passport or project players. The talent pool is too small.

However, it is fair enough to say that if someone is going to come and play for Ireland, they need to show some sort of commitment to staying here long term and buying into the Irish cricket community first. How that looks is the next question.

One option is to say they have to play a year of club/interpro cricket in Ireland before being selected, even if they are already qualified through the granny rule. It’s not always as simple as that.

In recent years, at senior level Curtis Campher is probably the most prominent example of a passport player being fast tracked, playing for Ireland before playing much domestic cricket. Covid played a role there, with Campher not able to play club cricket because a lot of it was wiped out. He instead came over and went straight into the squad to play against England in Southampton back in 2020.

It’s safe to say though that Campher has subsequently bought into Irish life, living in Dublin full-time, playing for YMCA and Munster and moving some of his loved ones over.

At U19 level, it’s tricky since it’s hard to ask someone of schoolboy age to move for a significant period when they might be preparing for exams. Ahead of the upcoming U19 World Cup, two South African-born players are training in their native country and will link up with the Ireland squad when they travel to Bloemfontein for matches.

How can you measure someone’s commitment to ‘becoming Irish’ when they’re not even training in the country? In one case, that of Jordan Neill, CI figures are fairly confident of his commitment given his family’s desire to come to Ireland. It’s not particularly relevant, but interesting to note that one of his cousins has married an Irish hockey player.

They are also very excited about Neill as a cricketer. He played in a schoolboy T20 tournament in SA and was the second highest run scorer. 1st and 3rd subsequently earned SA20 developmental contracts; the South African system is not happy to lose Neill.

Both Neill and the other passport South African in this squad, Kian Hilton, have at least played matches in Ireland in the emerging series and some academy intersquad games. Neill has also played sporadically for Merrion.

If the general rule is try to get these guys playing in Ireland before they are picked for national squads, both players have done so. Beyond that there isn’t a whole lot you can do to assess their commitment.

Of course, by being willing to parachute in such players you run the risk of what the question alludes to. Joshua Cox was brought in ahead of the last U19 World Cup, he kept wicket in that tournament and hasn’t been seen since. Liam Doherty, the other South African passport player in that squad, has since played for the North West Warriors.

Asking youngsters to commit their future to a country far away and not expect the odd situation to go awry is naive. As long as only a handful commit and then de-commit, that probably can be tolerated while selectors are willing to bring guys straight into underage set-ups.

There are two main issues that concern me beyond recent and upcoming matches. The first is that we urgently need a proper home ground. Malahide is one of my favourite venues but the ground belongs to the club and not to Cricket Ireland. We need Abbotstown ready to stage internationals to avoid huge temporary set up costs. It is not ideal for spectators, although hopefully the transport infrastructure will soon improve. We also need the Stormont upgrade to facilitate a second venue. We cannot grow our support base much if we cannot even showcase our team within Ireland.

The second issue that worries me concerns our South Asian community. In all but the top Leinster divisions they constitute the majority of the club players. This is even more true of Munster and the small Connacht league. They also participate in a big way in the NCU and the North-West. But the numbers coming through to interprovincial level, let alone the national setup are small. The numbers of Asian origin players coming through to represent their country of residence seem higher in Scotland, Netherlands, and also Zimbabwe and even New Zealand. I don't know what cultural or other issues are involved, but I am sure we are missing out on some big potential talent - Ian Muldoon

There were multiple questions along these lines about Abbotstown, so I’ll deal with them all here. As I understand it, plans are currently being costed with a view to applying for planning permission early ish in the new year. That’s positive. From what I can tell, the designs for the ground are very sleek and it will be a sizeable venue. Architects were in England looking at grounds there during Ireland’s ODI series seeking inspiration of sorts.

Here is why Abbotstown is needed. This summer, Ireland host Pakistan in May, though where those games are played remains up in the air. After the World Cup in the USA/Caribbean, if it finally happens, the artist formerly known as the Euro Slam will be held in July with at least some games in Ireland.

Then there is Zimbabwe’s trip. Australia are also coming over. South Africa are due to tour as well, but again, I’m not sure what country those will be played in.

That’s just the men. The women are hosting Sri Lanka and England. There could be more in the pipeline for them. The Wolves/Emerging Ireland/Academy/whatever you want to call them are due to host Sri Lanka and a reciprocal West Indies tour.

Then there’s the domestic interpros, 50-over, T20, and a return of First Class cricket with a number of north vs south games to take place. That is a hell of a lot of cricket to host when you don’t have a home ground. You’re relying significantly on clubs, and they only have so many free days on the calendar - they have their own matches to host as well.

Any facility Cricket Ireland can call their own and use at will is badly needed. The Sport Northern Ireland plans to develop Stormont will help driving down the cost of temporary stands etc when hosting matches there, but it’s different from Abbotstown in that CI won’t own it or be able to access it whenever they want.

I still harbour reservations about the viability of Abbotstown from a fan point of view. The attitude at the moment seems to be, get it over the line because it’s needed and the Government will pay for a big chunk of it, figure out the transport issues later. That’s all well and good, but it’s a big stadium and it will look very bad on TV if they host matches against big teams and no fans turn up. As it stands, the public transport options to that part of Dublin are poor.

CI for now are taking a ‘build it and they will come’ mantra. The matches will, but I’m not so sure about the fans.

On your question regarding the lack of South Asian players at interpro level, it’s something I’ve thought about for a long time now without coming up with any answers. Given the first major wave of South Asian migration to Ireland happened around 15-20 years ago, we might just not have seen enough time pass for the children of that generation to break through into the pro ranks?

Or maybe there are wider structural issues. Is the outreach to engage those communities and take them into Irish cricket circles good enough or is it a case of rely on their own eagerness to carry them into clubs? I suspect the latter.

The fact that Simi Singh is the only player of South Asian descent to play for Ireland in recent years is worrying. Others will follow, Asian players born in Ireland will eventually come through, but there certainly looks to be a lack of connection between the large communities that do play the game on this island and high performance sport.

It’s an issue that warrants an investigation/piece of its own right.

What's Stirlo's future? Given his general poor form leading the batting, and especially his performances in Zim, when we do we talk about dropping him from the squad? - Sam, Siún and Mick

Paul Stirling is not going anywhere. It’s no secret that he’s been in a bit of a lean patch with the bat but to say that the squad are delighted with him as captain would be an understatement.

By all accounts, he has already fostered a very positive environment. He is meticulous in his detail when it comes to analysis and planning and is an excellent communicator with the players. He is not an overbearing influence and knows how to condense information into something digestible.

Given the volume of cricket he has played both for Ireland, Middlesex and franchises around the world, his depth of knowledge and tactical acumen is respected by the players. Not just because everyone keeps looking at his record, but because they can see it out in the field.

He’s also an incredibly positive person who doesn’t easily get fazed. He has the Eoin Morgan trait of staying calm when things are going wrong, but he’s arguably even more of a warm character.

All of which is to say his captaincy is so valuable. It doesn’t make up for his lack of runs, but it’s still a big factor. There’s no point in dropping him due to poor form simply because there is no ready-made replacement opener. It would be different if someone is hammering down the door in Wolves cricket, but nobody is.

Stirling has committed to leading Ireland to the 2027 World Cup. So long as he finds some form or there is no other opening option, and his captaincy is impressing everyone, he will be there for that run.

Fitness is also a concern given he’s 33 now, but by all accounts he is looking after himself as well as he ever has done.

Who's going to be the next Irish player to be picked up by the IPL - Sam, Siún and Mick

Tricky one. The obvious answer is Harry Tector but an IPL team won't buy a number four batter with a strike rate in the 120s. He has two options really. One, start scoring a lot quicker, which is unlikely given he’s been told his role in the team is to set things up for the power hitters at the end, rather than take the game on himself.

The second is to move up to number three, increase his strike-rate a touch by facing his favoured seamers in the powerplay with the field up, and become a traditional anchor at first drop in the mould of a Joe Root-type player. Root of course did pick up an IPL gig in 2023 with Rajasthan, though he didn’t play much.

Apart from that, it’s tricky to see which Irish player is close. Paul Stirling has the best-suited game in that he can score quickly and also bat through a T20 innings, but he’s not in form. Besides, now he’s full-time captain, he won’t be allowed to miss any Ireland games for franchise gigs.

Campher could be a dark horse given his all-round abilities if he keeps steadily improving. But again, does he score quickly enough given his position in the order?

Even if somebody has an unbelievable T20 World Cup, recency bias plays against them. The feats of June will largely be forgotten by the time the IPL auction takes place in December.

Sadly, I think it will be a while before one of Josh Little’s compatriots joins him in Asia.

Are ODIs still Ireland strongest format? Should we wait until the T20 World Cup to decide? - Sam, Siún and Mick

I would say stronger at ODIs. As a batting unit, Ireland are more suited to playing the long game, settling in and then exploding at the back end with the power hitters they have in the lower order. That style is clearly more suited to the longer format.

That said, Ireland do have a T20 identity that clearly allows them to win matches. But the ways they can win are limited. They essentially need to bowl first and hope to restrict, giving their batters as much information as possible on what they need to do to win the game.

The way the top four is constructed at the moment is not set up to hit 200+ batting first in a T20, or even chase a total of 180+.

Granted, in the ODIs in England, Ireland looked poor in that longer format. The pitches there didn’t suit them. They were flat and turned the match into a shootout, a 50-over T20 essentially.

Ireland don’t have the firepower to go toe-to-toe with the best sides in a hitting contest. Josh Little aside, all of their bowlers lack the pace to be able to threaten on flat decks, so they need assistance from the surface and hope their batters can grind it out, keeping them in the game long enough for their strength at the end to kick in. That’s definitely more suited to 50-over cricket.

Who should we get angry at for not being able to watch all of the Zim series? - Sam, Siún and Mick

How long have you got? Answering this within Substack’s post limit will be tricky.

Essentially, because broadcasters don’t value rights for bilateral series involving countries outside of England, Australia and India anymore, it can be hard to sell TV rights. Especially in a country like Ireland where cricket only really features in the mainstream conversation during World Cups or if they get a one-off win against one of the so-called ‘big teams.’

Rights for bilateral series are the property of the host board, in this case Zimbabwe. What smaller cricketing nations, like Zimbabwe and Ireland, do is take their home rights for a number of years and pool them together, selling them to a third party in one big go. That third party isn’t a broadcaster. They are essentially a marketing team who has contacts in the TV world, using those to sell off individual series depending on the interest.

For the boards, it’s a win because they have guaranteed income for their rights for say, a five-year period. They also have the equivalent of a player agent acting on their behalf, making life more convenient. The third party is happy because so long as India tour during that window - which they almost always do - they make a profit on their investment.

However, that means lower profile series can fall through the cracks. If broadcasters don’t show an interest, which is what happened recently, the rights are now owned by a third party marketing group which is not a broadcaster. That’s a problem.

The company in question, Total Sports Marketing (TSM) say that they approached Cricket Ireland (CI) asking for help finding an Irish broadcaster since no one was showing any interest. That did happen, but it’s not quite as simple as saying CI didn’t do enough to help - there were other requests made which complicated matters.

Normally, if no TV company takes the rights a free stream is put on YouTube or ICCtv. Given technical limitations at the ground in Harare, only a satellite feed, unsuitable for streaming, could be produced. Most streaming services can’t convert a satellite feed, but ICCtv can. The problem was a delay in TSM giving ICCtv access to the satellite link to do so, to the point where the conversation between those two - with CI and Zim Cricket acting as go-betweens - didn’t reach a positive conclusion until after the T20Is, only the ODIs were shown.

To answer your question, be angry at TSM for not handing over the link to ICCtv sooner. Be angry at Zimbabwe for handing over control of their rights and therefore being subject to the whims of a third party. Be angry at ICCtv that the ODIs were only available in the Republic of Ireland and not the North/UK. You can be angry at Cricket Ireland as well, although to a lesser degree since it’s not their home series, that their home market was not served. Finally, be angry at the ICC that this is how bilateral rights are organised. Ideally, rights for countries should all be pooled together. If you want to show India games, you have to show a certain amount of other bilateral games between full member nations.

The current system of introducing third parties and handing over control to guarantee income, while financially prudent, leaves fans open to getting screwed.

What does Irish cricket need to do to ever get shown on Irish TV? - Kenny Carroll

That, quite literally, is the million euro/pound question. While acknowledging I am firmly in the middle of the echo chamber that is the Irish cricket community which always is convinced it should get more national media attention, there is no question that the sport is underserved.

Media types are a cynical bunch. They will always look for a reason to not broadcast something than to do so. For cricket in Ireland, it’s easy to find that reason when you compare the numbers playing and watching to other sports.

It’s not always as simple as judging the size of the sporting community. Look at rugby. The number of people playing in Ireland is small compared to soccer and GAA, but international rugby matches earn spots in the top-10 most watched sporting events every year. I’m fairly sure one of Ireland’s Rugby World Cup matches was the highest watched television event of 2023, beating out the All-Ireland football final and the Toy Show which normally are in and around that mark.

That lesson from rugby, turning non-players into viewers, comes back to success. Everyone watches because it’s a rare international sport at which Ireland are among the best in the world. That won’t happen for cricket any time soon, but if in 10 years the funding model kicks into gear and Ireland do become more of a force, more people will watch.

The other thing that can happen is the expat communities become such an important TV market that Irish broadcasters take notice. The number of immigrants in Ireland from cricket-playing nations has exploded in the last 20 years, and it will only get bigger. Again, cynical broadcasters are unlikely to pander to expat communities unless they absolutely have to, but we could get to a stage where, for example, the sub-continental Asian communities in Ireland become such a substantial market that something changes.

Will we ever see cricket shown live on RTÉ or Virgin Media? I doubt it. But we might get Irish streamers, like Premier Sports or Clubber, trying to fill the gap more and more as time goes on.

With first class cricket likely to be back this year what do you think that will look like and do you think the 50 and 20 over comps will stay the same or increase in the amount of games played? - Conor

Last I heard, FC games will be a handful of north vs south contests, not interpros in the current four-team model.

Ideally, the domestic white ball competitions only grow. More volume of cricket is needed in all departments.

In the previous answer about Abbotstown, you can see just how much cricket is scheduled to be played in Ireland during the summer. With no home ground, you’re relying on clubs and there are only so many days on the calendar where clubs can give up their facilities.

Something has to give. As it stands, I can’t see CI having the physical capacity to play all the games that are scheduled. My guess would be one of the Wolves/Academy series will be pushed back and the white ball interpros won’t expand.

Who if anyone is there coming through that could be genuinely good enough to get into the men’s team as a batsman? Lot of complaints about players in the side being on bad runs of form but 0 ideas about how to replace them... - James Hanrahan

Depends on your definition of ‘coming through.’ If you mean uncapped, then the answer is no one right now, as the results on the Emerging tour to the West Indies showed.

Of the uncapped guys, there are plenty who have shown enough in interpros to be worth another look on a Wolves tour. Tim Tector, Harry’s younger brother, is one. Morgan Topping had a good year in the middle order for the Knights, while his teammate Cade Carmichael wasn’t far behind him. Ali Frost down in Munster also impressed at times.

The problem is most of those guys are naturally middle-order players. Tim Tector opens for club and province, but started off in the middle order like his brother and only recently moved up to open because he can see the logjam in the Irish middle order. With Andrew Balbirnie and Paul Stirling in their 30s, that’s where a spot will open up first.

Topping had the best interpro record this year of the young players but is the furthest away from the Ireland team because Harry Tector bats in his spot and is only in his mid-20s. Similarly, Curtis Campher and Lorcan Tucker are also young. It’s going to take something special to force those guys out given they haven’t entered the prime years of their career yet.

In terms of players coming through who could make an immediate difference, for a while now I’ve said I want to have a look at Neil Rock again. What he did for the Knights this year with the bat was sensational given he was dropped from the Ireland side for a lack of power. He has more than rectified that and he’s left-handed, variety which Ireland badly need.

The way of getting him into the team would be to either drop a bowler and rely on Campher and Dockrell more with the ball, or a straight swap for a batter. Neither of those are easy calls.

Murray Commins isn’t a million miles away, especially since Ireland still don’t have a clear backup opener. The knock on him is, for all his elegant strokeplay, he tends to dot up when good bowlers take away his boundary options.

Ross Adair is another name but I’m not quite convinced. He was found out by good bowling in Bangladesh and needs to play a hell of a lot more cricket before he displaces anyone. Ideally, he’d have been on that Emerging/Wolves tour instead of carrying the drinks in Zimbabwe.

Would the Windies be better placed to play Ireland in two Tests next month rather than a rampant Australia? Will Ireland secure their first Test win in Abu Dhabi in March? Should the Irish women be playing Test cricket again? - Larry the Leprechaun

Competitively, yes, of course West Indies should play Ireland if they want to simply win because the Aussies batter everyone at home. Financially, though, their board will jump at the chance to play the big three. They’ll get more sponsor money out of a series vs Australia than Ireland.

I honestly can’t see Ireland getting over the line vs Afghanistan in Abu Dhabi. We saw what their spinners did at the World Cup, now give them turning tracks in the UAE that deteriorate over five days. Against Ireland’s line-up which was castled by spin on more than one occasion on the subcontinent last year, I can’t see anything but a ‘home’ win.

I’d equally be surprised if we ever see the Irish women playing Test cricket. Not enough other teams play often enough to make women’s Tests competitive or viable. It would be a nice few days out, but nothing more since there aren’t the funds to properly invest in women’s domestic red ball. We saw the disaster of the men playing Test cricket without a domestic equivalent, they won’t subject the women to the same failings.

What will Irish cricket’s finances look like in 12 months’ time? - Larry the Leprechaun

Better than they do now, that is for sure. They’re getting probably around $14 million off the ICC this year, a rise of roughly $10 million - albeit they have to start paying back a loan.

A lot of that will be spent on the congested home calendar this year but the fact they can now afford to spend it shows they’re in a better situation. Not rude financial health, but hopefully not perilous either.

Is Conor Olphert and his beautiful bowling action real or did we all just imagine him? Seriously though where's he at? - Nicholas Fewster

Good question. The selectors got excited by him very quickly in 2022 given his pace, but he’s not played since his debut series against India.

There have been injury issues, while his studies got in the way of selection on one of the Asian tours last spring. This summer, he didn’t even feature for the Warriors due to recurring knee and hip problems. He only played four club games for Bready, bowling 15 overs and taking five wickets at a cost of 99 runs.

Ireland won’t give up on him just yet. Apart from Little and maybe David Delany (who at this stage I think has well and truly been cast aside), Olphert is Ireland’s quickest bowler. They will do all they can to mould that into something of an international career.

He has recently recovered from injury to start bowling again in winter sessions.

Warren (Deutrom) about to start his 18th year as CEO. How is this acceptable to the board members? I know he’s done a lot of great work, but Irish cricket desperately needs a fresh strategy, especially at grassroots - Rob O’Connor

I am no expert on administrator tenure length in sport, but Warren Deutrom has certainly been at the helm of Irish cricket for quite some time.

You are right in that he has achieved plenty, full member status was a big personal goal of his, clearly, and that deserves recognition.

You’re not the only person asking about the grassroots game and suggesting that it is in need of more attention. For a long time now, clubs have been saying they feel there is a disconnect between them and Cricket Ireland. The buck ultimately stops with the person whose name is at the top of the organisation.

It could be a case of the grassroots game is still recovering from the Covid decimation. Some issues, I’m sure many would argue, stem from before the pandemic.

The blaming of the pandemic for the pause in the development of Irish cricket at all levels is becoming a bit laboured for some. The ‘wait for the money’ argument ahead of increased ICC funding also frustrates many who have disagreed with countless decisions when it came to the allocation of limited funds prior to the imminent cash boost.

Deutrom and Ross McCollum, another senior figure in Cricket Ireland, are well connected at the ICC and it was their lobbying that finally earned this year’s funding spike - even if it probably did come at least five years too late. Do you blame the administrators for it taking so long, or praise them for finally getting the cash? Or both?

Deutrom has also overseen the long-running Abbotstown plan, with that finally starting to look like it will come to fruition. He also ensured the 2030 T20 World Cup will come to these shores, provided Abbotstown is built in time.

Full membership, proper funding, a stadium and a World Cup would be a decent legacy for Deutrom. As the question alludes to, these are all high performance goals, and grassroots figures feel disconnected from this. To what extent Deutrom and the staff for whom he is ultimately responsible can improve this perception should always be at the forefront of their thinking.

Thanks to the long-standing funding issues, the grassroots has probably suffered since the high performance sides are the face of Irish cricket and their success of failure determines how much money comes in the door. Now that is changing with more ICC money coming in, grassroots certainly needs some more love.

As I always say with issues about administrators, because we have never seen how they do their jobs with the money needed to properly fund the sport, it’s difficult to assess their performance fairly. The counter to that argument is top quality administrators would have found ways to creatively progress even with no cash. I’ll let you decide which camp you fall in.

What is the Wolves schedule like for 2024? Are fringe players like Moor, Commins, Doheny, Mayes etc going to get any 1st XI chances anytime soon? - James Belfast

See above about those two home series with Sri Lanka and West Indies coming. Bangladesh were also supposed to travel but that had to be canned because Ireland can’t host that many games. There will be a few away trips as well.

PJ Moor is not starved of cricket because he goes back to play in Zimbabwe every winter. He may well get another go in the Test side against Afghanistan, reprising his role as a specialist Test batter against spin.

Tom Mayes could get a look after he bowled well with the red ball on the Emerging tour to the Caribbean. There could be a spot for a seamer in the Test side since Little won’t play red ball against Afghanistan, but given the conditions they’ll probably play an extra spinner.

Those two would be the most likely to get a run soon. Commins needs Balbirnie or Stirling to go down or be rested, Doheny too. They may take a few young spinners on the trip to UAE to play Afghanistan but I don’t see Ireland’s XI changing dramatically.

Why does Gareth Delany seem to be out in the cold regarding the ODI team. His performances in the T20Is was excellent and when he was actually allowed to bowl in the ODI WC qualifiers he did better than our other spinners. If he is rediscovering some batting form then even better - James Belfast

It’s quite clear at this stage that Delany is not trusted to bowl 10 economical overs in one match.

The departure of old spin coach Nathan Hauritz was not good news for Delany. Of all the spinners, he seemed to benefit most from working with the Australian. When Delany was man-of-the-match vs the West Indies in Hobart last year, his plan to bowl googlies to the long boundary as a wicket-taking option was a Hauritz-inspired strategy. Delany changed from a defensive bowler to an aggressive, wicket-taking option under his tutelage.

He certainly hasn’t been helped by injury recently.

Malan said pre-Zim that Ireland take wickets in the middle overs of ODIs but give away too many runs in that period. Essentially, he’s of the view that the wickets leg-spinners take are not worth the cost of their higher economies, finger spinners offer more control.

So there’s your answer in a nutshell. In T20, with only four overs to bowl, Delany is trusted to be aggressive and not conceded too much damage, but not in a longer, 10-over spell. That’s fine, but then the debate then shifts: is Ben White more trustworthy, or indeed Ireland’s finger spinners who have been whacked around in recent ODI cricket - Andy McBrine in particular though he did show better form in Zim?

As for Delany’s batting, I think he absolutely has to play in T20 to balance the team. Number seven is too high for Adair. Delany is strong against both spin and pace, Adair one spot lower down at eight increases his chances of facing seamers at the death which is where he is most dangerous.

In ODIs, that balance isn’t as important because Ireland’s middle order is better suited to batting deep in a longer format. But the flip side is if things do go wrong, asking Adair and McCarthy to bat for 15+ overs is a big ask, one that looks a whole lot easier to bear when offset by Delany batting in front of them.

In Emerging Irelands 4 day matches vs West Indies Academy, McCollum scored 20 runs at an average of 5 in the 2 games. Over his 6 game test career he averages 18.09, should Ireland be looking to drop McCollum from the test side? - Ireland Cricket Stats

It’s impossible to judge the Test players given they’ve played so few matches and essentially zero First Class games. McCollum has the tools to be a decent Test opener, and as long as he remains contracted they’ll have a look at him.

Who else is there to replace him with? We have no idea because there is no First Class cricket.

Why when I bowl does the opposition umpire always say the ball is going down leg and not out LBW? - Fionn Hand Appreciation Society

Because Mullingar spent the budget on buying watermelons instead of bribing umpires.