How Ireland went from almost attaining Test-playing status to failing to qualify for World T20 2016

Ireland’s pursuit of Test cricket has hampered their recent performances in limited-overs cricket

Uphill struggles

The so-called rigorous criteria was, however, a polite euphemism for the ICC's refusal to expand cricket to include more global members. Ironically, when Ireland were striving for Test status, the ICC saw no realistic profit in including an 11th Test playing nation at a time when Test cricket was dying a slow but undeniable death.

Cash-strapped and fighting a losing battle to gain Test status, interest in cricket dwindled in Ireland in favour of Gaelic football, hurling and rugby. The situation got so worse that in 2009, when Ireland played England, they failed to get a single broadcaster.

Regretting the lack of interest Deutrom said, "We had television for our game in 2006 when Ireland played England and in 2007 when India and South Africa were here. We didn't get a broadcaster for 2009. I think there were some financial problems involved in that.

"I think the problem by and large, from what broadcasters say to me, is that they don't like to do deals on a one-by-one basis. They prefer to package things up. If we were in a situation whereby we were embedded in the Future Tours Programme, then we would have sufficient home cricket to be able to go out and talk to another broadcaster."

With very few bilateral matches and almost no broadcasting, Ireland's plight is the same as that of any associate nation. The spotlight shifts away from them whenever an ICC event is over and with not enough matches in between with no proper broadcasting, they slip in and out of anonymity. Teams like Kenya and Namibia have followed a similar trajectory so far.

The step-motherly attitude of the ICC towards the associate nations does not help much. With the bulk of the revenue generated being snapped up by India, England, and Australia, the big three end up controlling cricket with no desire of a global expansion. Ireland, for instance, received a meagre US$ 3 million from the ICC in 2015-16.

Exodus of talented players

With a lack of encouragement, fiercely ambitious Irish players who wanted to play Test cricket at the danger of slipping into perpetual anonymity started joining England. In Morgan, Joyce, and Rankin - Joyce and Rankin would later come back - Ireland lost three of their best players to England.

This led to aggressive campaigning among the Irish fans to stop the exodus with some passionate people even blaming the ECB for not doing enough. It even became a running joke - no one knows how authentic the claims are - that the ECB has a lot to benefit by siphoning off Irish players and therefore does not want Ireland to attain the full member status.

England captain Eoin Morgan has, quite outrageously for the Irish fans, asked young Ireland players to follow his example and join the England team. “If you have a young, ambitious guy who wants to play Test cricket, he’s going to look elsewhere. It’s unfortunate, but it’s the nature of playing cricket in Ireland and for Ireland," he said.

“I think it certainly has changed since I made my decision to go and play cricket for England, but the main factor in deciding whether your aspirations are there is Test match cricket."

Deutrom is fully conscious of the challenge that Ireland are facing to hold on to some of their best players. "If you think about the reasons why (players) are going (to England), it's because they want to be as good as they can be," he said.

"They want to be able to find the vehicles and the forums to be able to express their abilities. In that way, we need to make sure that our players are aware of our ambitions. If we just happen to bump along as an associate and say, 'We're the No.1 associate now, that's all we're going to be forever,' I think we're going to lose more and more players.

"Our ambitions are surely to make sure that cricket is as successful as possible in Ireland ... and to that extent, we need to make sure that our players are aware that that is exactly where we're going.

"Even if it's obviously too late for the likes of Eoin Morgan and Ed Joyce, what we're saying to the next rung of Irish players coming through is: we are ambitious, we are interested in going for Full Membership but it may take some time, and we are doing our very best to put in a contract system that allows you to consider playing cricket as a career in Ireland in the same way as you might want to play cricket for England and to complement your county career."

The road ahead

But amidst the chaos, Ireland have intensified their bid to attain the Test status. Eighteen players were handed out full-time contracts with ten of them being contracted now for the next two years. This was to keep the players secure and focussed on the InterContinental Cup.

"Our InterContinental Cup campaign – the pathway to Test cricket – has another 21 months to run and ensuring the availability of our top players was our rationale for offering a number of two-year contracts this time around," Cricket Ireland Performance Director Richard Holdsworth said.

"Ed Joyce was offered two years but is keen to decide on his future career before committing longer-term which we entirely understand. He remains an integral part of the Ireland team, and is fully committed to our ambition of becoming the next Test nation," Holdsworth added.

"We have an extremely competitive and hungry group of players now with a well-balanced age profile and experience. With only 18 contracted at this stage, there will be strong competition for places in squads across the three formats while we have cover should players pick up injuries."

Ireland have a good record in the InterContinental Cup having won it four times and they sit at the top of the table at the moment with 60 points. The side that wins the eight-team round-robin format of the InterContinental Cup will have to defeat the 10th ranked Test team in the four-match ICC Test Challenge in 2018 to become the 11th Test playing nation.

Ireland are taking slow but sure steps to achieving their dream now. Cruel policy-making by the ICC, a cash-strapped cricket board, lack of matches or broadcasting interest and a mass exodus of players have compounded the magnitude of their recent struggles.

The collateral damages have been felt in the form of a disastrous qualification campaign for the World T20 2016. Attainment of Test playing status will be their only redemption which will validate their life-long struggle towards one dream.

The beauty and impossibility of their dream - to see them walk out in all whites to represent their own country someday - has governed them for far too long. The death of that dream, like Joyce's 'drops of water in a fountain', might put a permanent end to Ireland's cricketing ambitions.