Cricket: Where Taking the Shilling Takes the Biscuit

Consider for a moment a strange parallel universe, where the Leinster Football Final features mighty Dublin against plucky underdogs Wicklow. Wicklow has never been a stronghold of football, but through the dedication of a small minority, they’ve put together a team that has brought the Garden County to the great stage where, as Sir Walter Scott put it, one crowded hour of glorious life is worth an age without a name.

Consider furthermore how exactly Wicklow would feel if Dublin’s best player on this Leinster Final Day in front of a packed Croke Park were himself from Wicklow – Aughrim, say – with no connection to Dublin at all, at all.

This Wicklow man had gone to Dublin to hurl some years ago and the good and generous people of Wicklow GAA said: well, fair enough so. It’s an uphill battle to keep football going here, but we haven’t a snowballs of being competitive in hurling. You’re a great footballer but if hurling is your passion you have to follow its flame. So long then son, and good luck to you.

But the prodigy turns out to be no good at hurling. He knows how to hold the thing at the thin bit instead of the thick bit but his wristwork isn’t worth tuppence. However, although a limited hurler, he’s still pretty dang good at football.

Having found out that he’d never make it as a Dublin hurler he is now a very successful Dublin footballer, even though if he was going to play football he could have done that by returning to Wicklow. But he hasn’t returned to Wicklow. Here he is instead, with the three castles of Dublin burning proudly on his breast.

This is precisely the situation facing Ireland at the Cricket World Cup, which starts this weekend. Eoin Morgan, the best Irish player of his generation, is not only playing for England, but he is captaining them.

Morgan is not the first non-Englishman to play for England. England have been very open-minded in this regard, historically. But if you’re trying to build a sport, as Cricket Ireland claim they are, they need their best players playing for Ireland to inspire the youth. And that’s where they have a big problem with Morgan.

Morgan transferred for England because he wanted to play Test cricket. Ireland play one-day cricket, but they do not play Test matches. Hurling is less like football than Test cricket is like the one-day game, but the comparison isn’t that far-fetched either.

In the early years of the one-day game, in the late 1960s, the international teams were the same in both forms of the game. Now, they’ve become more specialised and, while there are still crossover players, they are now also one-day specialists and test specialists and it’s impossible to image one playing the other, anymore than you could send Tommy Walsh playing football or hand a hurl to the Gooch. Fish out of water.

Eoin Morgan is a one-day specialist. So special, in fact, he’s captaining the English team. He will not play Test cricket. England have capped him at Test level, and he wasn’t good enough. He hasn’t got it for Test cricket. But he is plenty good enough for one-dayers, and this is the rub.

If Morgan is good enough to captain England, imagine the difference a player of his ability could make to Ireland? Cricket is one of those games where one man really can make a difference. If Eoin Morgan were still playing for Ireland, Ireland wouldn’t necessarily win the World Cup, but they could certainly put Irish cricket on the map and advance the country’s claim for full Test status.

But he’s not. He’s captaining England instead, and Irish cricket seem entirely ok about that. It’s not done to point this fairly obvious fact out. If Morgan is ever mentioned, it’s in the same obsequious terms last heard on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth’s visit to the Free State (without Blessed Mary McAleese’s W-0-W for the Gaeilge, of course).

Expect plenty of yak in the media about brave Ireland flying the flag and all of us rallying around the flag and over-by-over live tweeting of Ireland v the United Arab Emirates live from the storied Brisbane Gabba.

Do not expect any journalism from the fans-with-typewriters. Do not expect inquiries as to why Cricket Ireland thinks it deserves Test status when it can’t hang onto its players. Do not expect any thought-pieces wondering how Eoin Morgan feels about those three lions on his shirt and listening to God Save the Queen booming out over the PA.

In an era where the south sea islands are combed for New Zealand rugby internationals and New Zealand itself is combed for Scottish rugby internationals, don’t expect anyone writing about Ireland at the Cricket World Cup to ask Captain McMorris’s famous question of his fellows in Shakespeare’s Henry V: “What is my nation?”

Just be thankful that the chance of a minnow breaking through in the Cricket World Cup is even lower than the chance of one breaking through in the Rugby World Cup, and that it’ll all be over soon.

Aiséirí an Leath-Chúlaí Amuigh 'Sna Sé Náisiúin?

Tá Comórtas na Sé Náisiún os ár gcomhair arís, agus cluichí le himirt an deireadh seachtaine seo i gCaerdydd, i bPáras agus sa Róimh, Cathair na Seacht gCnoc. Siad na Gaeil a mbeidh sa Róimh, na hAlbanaigh i bParás agus na Sasanaigh a bheidh ag imirt i gcoinne na Breataine Bige.

Chuir Keith Duggan, an scríbhneoir spóirt is fearr in ár linne, ceist spéisiúil smaointeach i ndiaidh cluichí an Fómhair, nuair a thug sé faoi deara an rún spóirt is mó sa lá 'tá inniu ann – tá an rugbaí ag éirí níos leadránaí agus na cóitseálaithe níos cliste. Ní labhraítear os ard é mar tá níos mó airgid sa gcluiche riamh agus, mar is eol leis an domhan mór, labhraíonn an t-airgead, agus ní labhraíonn sé aon bhreag.

Ach ag am céanna feictear nach bhfuil an spioraid sa rugbaí mar a bhíodh riamh. Dúirt Donncha O'Callaghan, sean-fhonadóir na Mumha agus na hÉireann, ní raibh sa gcluiche dósan ach obair. Glan an ruc seo, brúigh sa gcrág sin. An obair céannán céanna mar an “Tote that barge, lift that bale,” a cloiseadh taobh na Mississippi sa 19ú haois.

Tuigtear sa rugbaí le fada go bhfuil deighlt mór idir lucht imirithe an pianó agus lucht iompar an pianó. Ach ag an am céanna, ní raibh ainm an sclábaí ar tosaithe na rugbaí céanna seo, fir cosuil le Colin Meads, Willie John McBride, Moss Keane, Wade Dooley agus a leithéid. Bhain siadsan agus daoine cosuil leo spraoi óna gcuid imirthe – cén fáth nach bhfuil an spraoi céanna d'imreoirí cosúil le O'Callaghan?

Cé go bhfuil rugbaí sraithe faoi bhrú ag an rugbaí, tá tionchar sách láidir ag feallsúnacht an rugbaí sraithe ag an rugbaí. Is í feallsúnacht an rugbaí sraithe an pheist i úll rugbaí, agus feallsúnacht an cluiche thuaidh ag teacht ina ríocht, go mall ach go deimhin. Smaoinigh ar an mbéim atá ar an ngréimiú, ar sealbh na liathróide, ar neart an duine. Cá bhfuil an ealaíon? Cá bhfuil an bua? Cá bhfuil an gliondar?

Bhí áit ar fáil le gach saghas duine i bhfoireann rugbaí tráth, agus cialladh sin ná go raibh gach saghas corrála ann freisin don lucht feachtaint – corráil na mbuachaillí mhóra ag dul in aghaidh a cheile sa gclibirt, nó corráil na mbuachaillí bheaga ag eitilt síos an gcliathán. Agus níos fearr ná tada, bhí an teannas ann i gcónaí idir an té atá láidir agus an té atá glic.

Ba é an leath-chúlaí amuigh an duine is tábhachtaí ar fhoireann rugbaí, tráth. Ba í an Bhreatain Bheag baile na leath-chúlaithe is fearr sa ndomhan, agus is filí iad na Breatnaigh go leir agus an rugbaí á phlé acu. Is é an leath-chúlaí amuigh “an snáthad mhór ar inneoin an scriosadh,” a scríobhadh faoi Barry John i stáir oifigiúil Aontais Rugbaí na Breataine Bige, agus tá an teannas sin, idir an bheilbhit agus an t-iarann, ag croí an cluiche rugbaí.

An fadhb anois ná go bhfuil sé ag éirí i bhfad níos deacra dealaigh idir buachaillí an ráipéir agus buachaillí an chlaímh leathan. Is léir go bhfuil cúlchéimniú chun an mheáin ag tárlú i rugbaí, agus tá an meán ag éirí níos láidre arís agus arís eile leis na bliana.

Scríobh Dónal Lenihan san Examiner, an togha pháipéir spóirt sin, go bhfuil roinnt leath-chúlaithe amuigh tagtha ar an tsaol sa gComórtas seo chugainn, imeoirí dá laghad Lopez na Fraince agus Russell na hAlbáin, dhá thír agus leath-chúlaí amach ag taisteal uathu le fada anois.

Ach an am céanna, is deacair creidiúnt go bhfuil áit fághta sa rugbaí do na draoithe mar a bhíodh, iadsan ag éalú scriosadh ón bpáca le gach liathróid a ghlacaidís agus iadsan ag gáire in aghaidh an bhaoil. Tá súil agam go bhfuil dúl amú orm, ach mo léan ghearr, is dócha go bhfuil spreadsheet éigin ag gach foireann treanála a thaispeann nach bhfuil.