FOREWORD // IRELAND’S ROAD TO TEST CRICKET
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Afghanistan will play their inaugural Test against India in Bengaluru from 14-18 June 2018. This Test will be covered in the ICC Annual Report 2018-19.
It was after that game that the idea of Cricket Ireland applying for Test status came about, the rationale being that having set themselves the challenge of replicating the success of the 2007 World Cup with deliberately focused strategies the heroics on it.
It was also, they hoped, a way of discouraging players from leaving to pursue their dream of Test match cricket. Having lost their two greatest batsmen, Ed Joyce and Eoin Morgan to England and with Boyd Rankin, one of their best bowlers, about to follow, it was another key factor.
One of the ex-players present for the inaugural Test, in his role as a TV commentator, was Aussie-born Trent Johnston, who became an Irish citizen and proudly led his adopted country 60 times from 2005-2008. Without his work-rate and passion, Ireland may never have reached the promised land – and certainly not as quickly.
Johnston’s relationship with coach Adi Birrell, the man who persuaded him to return to Ireland after playing club cricket as a professional years
SCORES IN BRIEF
Pakistan 310-9d
Ireland 130 (Kevin O’Brien 40; Mohammad Abbas 4-44,
Result: Player of the match: Kevin O’Brien
earlier, was a vital factor in Ireland’s success and that captain/coach bond was taken on by clean sweep of Associate titles in 2013.
was changed forever, with the announcement at The Oval on June 22, 2017, that Ireland and Afghanistan had been granted Full Membership and became the 11th and 12th Test nations – three years earlier than Deutrom’s vision.
Afghanistan will play their inaugural Test against India in Bengaluru from 14-18 June 2018. This Test will be covered in the ICC Annual Report 2018-19.
Just 11 months later, Ireland were playing Pakistan on Test Match eve, it has been an amazingly quick journey. “In my career personally, we have gone from not having ODI status to having ODI status and everything else, now we’ll be going out there
One journey is over, another has just begun.
ICC Annual Report 2017-2018
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