No Northern bias but Ireland squad is a poor look for interpros

Geographical trends should not distract from selectors showing their true opinions on the value of our domestic competition.

“Who is Ben Calitz?”

Reactions to Ireland squad announcements never fail to disappoint. Not necessarily for the content of the squad itself. Social media and personal messages are instead what make this life interesting.

We’ve been shorn a meaningful men’s national squad reveal for some time. Monday saw the group for a trio of T20s against England in Malahide announced - albeit after the more interesting details had already been put out there. Cue pandemonium in the country’s cricket WhatsApp groups. Nothing gets fan juices flowing quite like perceived selection slights.

The top T20 domestic run scorer for the past three years, Tim Tector, has been dropped. This despite a record-breaking return this year, Tector scoring the most individual runs in an Irish T20 interpro season.

Some perceived Tector’s form as putting Ross Adair under pressure. He keeps his place and will open the batting alongside Paul Stirling.

Ben Calitz, the Northern Knights man, is the spare batter and reserve ‘keeper. He’s a left-hander seen as a power option. It’s another attempt to add a skillset Ireland hoped Neil Rock would develop into. Pebbles’ ship appears to have sailed. For what it’s worth, Calitz doesn’t keep for his club side Lisburn, but in T20 cricket especially, glove work is a secondary skill.

Curtis Campher is fit after missing his last game for Essex and then the Emerald Challenge through injury. Gareth Delany returns after 11 weeks out with horrific facial injuries. As anticipated, Mark Adair and Josh Little are out. Craig Young replaces Liam McCarthy.

Now, why are the people in my WhatsApps upset?

The Tim Tector call is, quite frankly, wild. He’s been opening the batting for the Leinster Lightning but, in Ireland’s last two T20Is, he moved to the middle order. Tector batted in one of those games, scoring 7 as Ireland couldn’t slog their way to the West Indies’ total of 256 in Bready.

Selectors tried to reward his interpro form in recent years by simply getting him into the team. With Campher injured, a spot opened up in the middle order. A one-innings sample is not big enough to say it didn’t work.

If Tector was in the England squad but didn’t make the XI, Lightning fans would be aggrieved, but understanding. Instead, with Campher back in, Calitz appears to have taken Tector’s squad spot. You can imagine the response. Let’s try to reconstruct the logic potentially used by selectors.

Calitz had some T20 interpro success this year. Knocks of 35 off 12 balls, 34 off 18 and 58 off 32 stand out. While these don’t jump off the page to the same extent as Tector’s record numbers, he’s left-handed and can sweep leg-spinners and slow left-armers into the stand. Even if, based on the balance of the side, he is unlikely to actually play against England, Ireland need this variety in their batting line-up. They’ve gone for attributes over averages in selection, all while being consistent in acknowledging the need for this skillset.

In which case, Tector should be in competition with Adair for the opening slot. The former rugby player has hit 100 and 48 in his last two T20Is (he missed the Zimbabwe series with a calf injury). While he struggled for the most part in the interpros, to drop a player less than two games after one of the best T20 knocks in Irish history would be harsh.

In recent selection discussions, Irish coaches have made clear their faith in Adair. They don’t care about his lack of interpro runs. In their eyes, the South Africa innings has made him borderline undroppable.

All of which is fair enough. In isolation. But you really should still pick Tector in the squad. If anything else, just to maintain a pretence that selectors respect interpro form.

Spend some time on Twitter after a squad announcement and you’ll quickly see some comment or other focusing on perceived Northern Cricket Union bias. The head selector and most of the Irish coaching staff - bar the head coach (South African) and spin coach (English) - are from that part of the country. That all the ‘contentious’ selections - Adair, Calitz and all-rounder Jordan Neill - play for the Northern Knights, doesn’t quell those complaints.

The Knights were a shambles this year. Senior players failed to dominate in the same way their counterparts at the Lightning did. Youngsters largely failed to fill the gap - Cade Carmichael a notable exception. 

Meanwhile the Lightning dominated both competitions, saw big contributions from senior internationals, had young players such as Tim Tector step up and created a positive environment which allowed David Delany to reintegrate and return to his best form since his last Ireland cap in 2019. Yet if Calitz debuts, then four of the last five new Ireland caps will be from the Knights (Munster’s Liam McCarthy the exception).

Who is a better all-rounder, Delany or Neill? Which opener is in better form, Tector or Adair? We’ll give the selectors Calitz as the best middle-order left-hander. We don’t have many, after all.

Debates can be had on these calls but accusations of selection bias in favour of one region are somewhat childish. Even if there are now players within the Ireland squad itself who use the ‘B’-word. There isn’t a dramatic split in camp in response to selection, but it doesn’t sound like an overly happy place with everyone holding hands singing Kumbaya.

The issue is instead that the interpros are not respected as a competition. As far as the selectors are concerned, Tim Tector’s domestic runs over the last three months are no match for Adair’s international form over the last 12.

The Knights poor environment doesn’t matter when those players are promoted into the Ireland group. That Leinster got the best of out arguably the country’s most talented yet chaotic all-rounder also means squat. Those informed of discussions have made clear that Delany will not play for Ireland under the current leadership, even if his death bowling skills looked more polished than other internationals during Friday’s Emerald Challenge.

Also relevant here is the reaction of Ireland’s coaching staff to said Challenge games in Stormont. They saw the quality of cricket on display - despite weather and light affecting all three games - as better preparation for internationals than provincial games. If they had their way, there would be more ‘best vs best’ cricket and fewer interpros. Some senior Ireland figures didn’t attend certain interpro matches. Penny for the thoughts of the provinces?

Coaches can select however they want. It’s why they earn the big bucks. Look at England picking based on physical attributes rather than county form. What’s the difference?

Fans care about county cricket. I wrote this piece while at New Road taking in Worcester vs Notts alongside a few hundred people using their Monday to shelter from a thunderstorm while apparently watching cricket. The interpros have no such fan buy-in.

If there’s no commercial or fan value to provincial cricket, coaches don’t value it and games have little bearing on selection, what is the point? Cricket Ireland’s strategic plan says the goal is to have First Class cricket played by provincial teams by 2027. They also want European sides - ie from Scotland and the Netherlands - involved by the same year.

CI first needs to convince their own coaches that the competition is worth persevering with.

PS - notes

Another Ireland press release featured a bizarre piece of at best incomplete, at worst false information. Amongst the list of injured players in the squad announcement for next week was Fionn Hand, named alongside Mark Adair and Josh Little. Hand played for Clontarf on the weekend and bowled three overs. He might be short of top quality cricket but he’s not injured.

The Emerald Challenge was a useful exercise in some ways. Stephen Doheny continued his good form this summer (despite losing a contract - see below). Harry Tector looked to hit himself into some form, while senior bowlers such as Barry McCarthy got a much-needed hit out where they could practice T20 death bowling in a match environment. In some ways, though, it was a head scratcher of a week. On Friday, the closest we got to a full game, Tim Tector opened the batting while Ross Adair didn’t feature given he was lower down the order. Yes, Adair won’t be a 50-over opener any time soon, but given the England squad was largely picked already by that stage and this was the last chance for quality prep pre-England, why did they send the dropped Tector in for valuable reps ahead of Adair?

Speaking of Doheny and Hand, they were two of a number of players who recently had a Zoom call with director of cricket Graeme West. The Ireland men’s players on part-year contracts were told that, due to the lack of finances, they would not be paid beyond the summer. They were nevertheless asked to keep themselves available for selection, if possible. According to CI’s website, six players were on part-year deals: Hand, Doheny, Gavin Hoey, Matthew Foster, Morgan Topping and Liam McCarthy.