Not all doom and gloom for Irish cricket as a couple of gems emerge

With no further matches planned before a month-long tour of Zimbabwe in February, the men’s senior team will sign off their season knowing that a return of six victories from 18 white-ball matches, before today, is disappointing.

The year’s highlights were the first Test match victory over Afghanistan at the end of February, backed up by a solid four-wicket win against Zimbabwe.

But Cricket Ireland seem to view Test matches – the pinnacle of the game and the reason they receive five times the funding of Scotland and the Netherlands – as a necessary nuisance, at best.

The focus for several years has been on the shorter forms, and while a return of six T20 wins from 14 games may look OK, three of those victories were against non-Test-playing countries and Ireland lost all three completed matches at the T20 Word Cup.

There were mitigations: a tough group, plus rain and sub-standard playing conditions in New York, but losing to Canada was not acceptable.

The team’s two best batsmen, Paul Stirling and Harry Tector, must shoulder a lot of the blame; the former has managed just one half-century, while the latter had gone 11 innings without reaching 20 before Friday’s defeat.

Also, the rare availability of superstar paceman Josh Little and a recent injury to talisman Barry McCarthy haven’t helped the seam attack. The good news is that by promoting fringe players and trying new combinations on this short tour, the coaching team look to have unearthed a couple of gems.

Ross Adair took his chance to open again with a muscular T20 century, while leg-spinner Gavin Hoey already looks comfortable after just two games.

Unfortunately for today’s game, Adair was not selected in the ODI squad and is already in Australia, where he will spend the next few months playing club cricket in Adelaide.

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