What happened in Manchester

Dave Sihra (Substack - Dave Meets Ball)

Ireland lost their opening game at the Women's T20 World Cup but more importantly seem to have made a habit of losing to Scotland in the format, so where to next?

There was one topic that seemed to be on the mind of everyone after Ireland’s Group B loss to Scotland at Old Trafford in their opening game.

It didn’t take long for it to come up in the post-match press conference, and vice-captain Orla Prendergast did her best play a straight bat:

“Yeah, I suppose a lot of their girls do play county cricket, but at the same time we’ve got a recent professional structure in place back home that supports us really, really well”.

It was a theme that came up throughout the day (maybe how could it not) and that is Ireland’s relationship with the English Cricket. On Saturday you had two sides playing, one a Full Member the other an Associate side. One has access to county cricket, the other doesn’t.

A few other thoughts came up during the game however, like did Ireland get their fielding plans right? It didn’t seem the case during Cara Murray’s second over (the 11th over) which went for 20. After a boundary off the first delivery, Murray was in conversation with her captain who was down at deep long on for the leg spinner.

We don’t know exactly what was discussed but the movement of arms suggests maybe a long off was proposed by the bowler. After some back and forth it was instead decided to move the short fine leg fielder to cover on the ring. Ireland also needed to keep an eye on their overrate. Now there’s mid off in the ring and the extra cover fielder is not far away.

Next there’s a lap sweep to the vacant 45 area to toy with bowler and captain. Then Sarah Bryce of course manages to thread a shot through the small gap past the two diving fielders close together.

Both Bryce sisters in that kind of form would certainly make you scratch your head and tear up your plans. One part that was clear from Ireland was keeping Alice Tector out in the deep. The 18-year-old playing in her first World Cup looked incredibly assured under the high swirling ball to dismiss Katherine Fraser. Though she was less so under one in 18th over when Lister hoiked Prendergast into the legside.

In total there were three drops. The Tector one didn’t really cost anything as Lister was dismissed by Canning in the next over. Prendergast however dropped one in the opening over, advancing in from long on and just misreading the flight slightly as it went over her. It’s a tough call. Was Prendergast looking to be off the line? Or was it a misjudgement. Her instincts are usually spot on in such circumstances.

The key one was of course Alana Dalzell dropping Kathryn Bryce off OP in the 10th over when the batter was on just 20. Dalzell, like the bowler earlier, seemed to advance in off the toblerone at deep cover, then misread the trajectory and wasn’t in a position to catch it.

A strong wind didn’t make fielding easy, especially during Scotland’s innings. High catches are usually the biggest problem there, but also communication. Fielders might miss shouts and calls. Bowler and captain may be trying to discuss options from a distance like Murray and Lewis seemed to be doing in the 11th over.

Other bigger plans remain unclear exactly such as Dalzell opening the batting, and Alice Tector as a specialist batter at number 7. Maybe could you look at Coulter Reilly instead, unless you want the option of a Tector over?

Ireland’s plans in their World Cup opener largely looked to drift slightly into the chilly Manchester wind when faced with Bryce sisters and then Kirstie Gordon during the chase.

Taking back control

Maybe sometimes in life comparisons are unhealthy. In sport they just happen, and in the closing moments of the defeat on Saturday and the flight home that evening it was hard not to look at Irish cricket and Scottish cricket together, as well as how both sit in the orbit with English cricket.

It would obviously be incredible to have Irish cricketers back in the English system. Imagine Tector or Coulter Reilly playing and training regularly with a county side and what that would do for their development. Irish cricket has enjoyed all those benefits before.

On the men’s side, you don’t have to go too far back to remember a slightly different time in county cricket when voices were questioning how many players in English County Championship were actually English prospects. There were designated overseas players at counties, then you had Kolpak signings, plus your Irish (until 2017), Scottish and Dutch players.

Just to refresh everyone’s memory, the Kolpak ruling came after a European Court challenge from Slovakian handball player Maroš Kolpak who won the right to play in Germany without being classed as a foreigner. The European Union law protected any worker from the EU and from countries, like South Africa, with associate agreements.
Suddenly you’ve South African (plus some Zimbabwean and West Indian) players taking spots in teams away from English players. Jacques Rudolf, Claude Henderson, Corey Collymore etc etc.

The influx of Kolpak signings probably didn’t necessarily hurt the standard of county cricket, but if your system is to produce players for the national team then you’ve a problem. Measures were brought in to curb Kolpak signings but ultimately the practice was brought to an end by Brexit.

All this is to say international cricket boards are there to protect their own interests. However there is a long history too of smaller nations growing off the back of bigger ones. Kenyan cricket in the 80s and 90s benefited from Indian cricketers looking to holiday in East Africa. Many Zimbabwean and Namibian cricketers learned their trade in South Africa. A generation of Afghani refugees benefited from being in Pakistan during the 1992 World Cup.

It’s ultimately a very fine line, which may explain why the ECB appear to look at an annual European international competition as a pretty good idea, but also not a priority and probably not their problem.

It would be excellent to have Irish cricketers available to develop in the English system, and especially those who may carry a British passport. But Ireland needs a comprehensive, standalone system of its own as will eventually be required by Scotland and the Netherlands if they’re to grow further.

A meeting together of needs and resources of the three boards is probably the answer but that’s for another day. For now, Ireland need to turn their attention to their four remaining World Cup games. They started poorly in the tri-series last month against Pakistan and West Indies, then quickly put it behind them. They’ll have to do the same here even if challenging for a semi-final spot is now out of the question.

As for conversations about playing in the English system, it’s hard to avoid the topic when you play Scotland and then [checks notes] England. However if conversations on topic are happening in the Old Trafford media centre, at departure gates and on planes there’s a good chance it’s coming up too in high performance meeting rooms.

This article was originally published on the Substack: Dave Meets Ball