Joyce, Morgan…Rankin?
Boyd Rankin – aims to play Test cricket
You may have noticed the name of Boyd Rankin featuring in the recently announced England Performance Programme. Rankin has already played international cricket for Ireland, and could become the next of their players to be poached across the Irish Sea, after Ed Joyce and Eoin Morgan. Understandably, Cricket Ireland are not best pleased particularly as it will result in Rankin missing cricket for them whilst he is at the ECB’s training camps.
The training camps take place in Florida, Loughborough and Chennai this winter, during which time Ireland are to play Inter-Continental Cup and one day matches against a rapidly improving Afghanistan team. So Ireland could lose out without Rankin ever actually playing international cricket for England.
For Rankin personally, training with England is potentially more profitable than playing competitive cricket with Ireland. Rankin himself highlights the problem that Ireland have despite being far and away the strongest associate nation:
I am still keen to play for Ireland as much as I can but I can’t play Test cricket for Ireland and I have to do what I can to get that opening.
Neither Joyce or Morgan have yet played Test cricket, and Joyce has recently expressed his frustration at being left out of England’s one day squads for the winter as well. Neither does he feature in the EPP. Morgan’s prospects are somewhat better as he has featured in the Champions Trophy and is in the one day squad for South Africa.
For Ireland, the impasse remains. They are the strongest associate team, yet have no way to advance beyond that. Bangladesh’s promotion to Test status is commonly viewed as having been premature, and the ICC will not want to be seen to be repeating the mistake. Calls for a multi-tiered system of international cricket are for the time being no more than that.
ICC really need to find a better way to protect the associate nations from the poaching of their players. Ireland are the prime example, but Holland have also recently seen Dirk Nannes turn out for Australia. The answer probably does lie in providing a clear route to advancement for the stronger associate nations, as this would solve multiple problems as well as encouraging the global spread of the game.
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