The Irishman George Dockrell is a good bet to play in the next World Cup in 2015. Whether he will be able to do it for his home country, though, or will have to move to its bigger neighbor to the east is the question.
The 18-year-old left-arm spin bowler is scheduled to play for Ireland against West Indies on Friday, a few days after he put on the biggest display yet of his prodigious talent. Last Sunday he dismissed India’s living batting legend, Sachin Tendulkar, and its captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, a duo any spinner in the world would be delighted to snare.
Yet it was a performance that had to induce mixed feelings for Irish fans. While Dockrell helped Ireland to a respectable performance against the World Cup co-hosts and favorites, it also increased the likelihood that he would be the next Irishman to change national allegiance so he can play test cricket.
Ireland stands outside the 10 nations — including England, Australia and India — who have test status in cricket. These 10 monopolize power in the sport and receive automatic qualification to the World Cup. Current plans for the 2015 World Cup envision cutting the number of teams to 10, though entry requirements have not been finalized yet.
While Ireland is bidding for test status, the last promotion was Bangladesh in 2000, and the most optimistic Irishman recognizes that its own elevation is at least several years away.
Dockrell has acknowledged the possibility of moving, telling British journalists last week, “Everybody wants to play test cricket. It would be one of the things that may come if you went to play for England.”
For Irish cricket, as for so many aspects of Ireland’s history and culture, the proximity of England is both blessing and curse. One reason why Ireland has performed so well at this World Cup — beating England in a stunning upset, giving India a decent game and seriously scaring Bangladesh — is that many on its team also play as professionals with English county clubs, which gives them the chance to develop their skills and to play at major league level. Dockrell himself has a two-year deal with Somerset.
At the same time, losing those players to clubs in England makes it tougher to build the game at home.
And as long as Ireland lacks test status, the very best may choose to instead play for England. The four-year residency requirement is a simple matter for a player already playing there professionally.
Batsman Eoin Morgan, who made the switch two years ago, was called up to England’s squad as an injury replacement on Monday, and he would have been a certain original selection but for an injury of his own.
Warren Deutrom, chief executive of Cricket Ireland, told Reuters that test status was at least 5 to 10 years away. In the meantime, he accepts that outstanding individuals may be lost to other test-playing countries.
“We can’t blame those players for wanting to be as good as they can, and then place a limit on those ambitions,” Deutrom said.
Instead, he argues that the current structures of cricket force them into making such decisions. “We blame a system that makes those players leave because the form of the game that is regarded as the pinnacle isn’t open to us,” he said.
This makes the threat to possibly exclude the nontest nations from the 2015 tournament that much tougher. It would provide one more reason for Ireland’s best players to leave, a brutally unfair reward for the way it has almost singlehandedly upheld the honor of nontest nations in the last two tournaments. In the last Cup, it beat Pakistan to reach the playoff stage.
And Deutrom may be taking a mild view when he says that cricket “would have to have a very hard look at itself” if it denies Ireland the chance to qualify for 2015.
Dockrell might not be the only player Ireland risks losing. “We may have to face losing one or two more players,” Duetrom said.
Twenty-year-old all-rounder Paul Stirling also looks to have loads of talent, but it is Dockrell who already has observers talking about test potential.
There is good reason for that. Tendulkar, whose wicket Dockrell described as “a dream come true,” was merely the best yet in the line of test batsmen defeated by the 18-year-old Dubliner. Last year, at 17, he dismissed three West Indians and confined England’s batsmen to only 19 runs in four six-ball overs in the World Twenty20 in West Indies.
“He’s got real potential to fulfill that goal of test cricket,” said Andy Hurry, Somerset’s coach.
Hurry paints a picture of a smart, fast-learning young cricketer who is “very resourceful in his understanding of his cricket. He’s thoughtful in his slight variations of pace and in flight.”
At the same time he exudes the calm of a veteran. As Ireland’s captain, Will Porterfield, said, “He’s taken everything in his stride. He’s a pretty levelheaded young guy.”
Evidence of that is the way he has kept balance in his life — last year, for instance, he missed a one-day international against Australia to take a biology exam at school. He is thinking about going to college next year. Trinity College, Dublin, whose cricket pitch is in a prime city-center location and whose former players include the Nobel Literature laureate Samuel Beckett, is his likeliest destination.
Beckett, who specialized in the gloomier aspects of the human condition, might have recognized the ambivalence endemic to Irish cricket right now: the pleasure of producing its potentially greatest-ever talent is offset by the anticipation of its likely loss.
And if this is tough on Irish cricket as a whole, it is no easier for young men forced to choose between national allegiance and personal ambition.
“We don’t want to have players making that allegiance call,” Porterfield said. But For Dockrell, the likely price of having all that talent is he will have to make that call sooner rather than later.
Wobbly, but India wins
Yuvraj Singh made 51 not out as India clinched a nervy five-wicket victory over Netherlands at the World Cup on Wednesday. Yuvraj rescued the tournament favorite, The Associated Press reported from New Delhi.
On Tuesday, Ross Taylor finished with a 131 in New Zealand’s victory over Pakistan in the World Cup.
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