True, but nobody made it big by thinking small. In these austere times, a little investment in sport can go a long way. I'm not sure what the audience would be like for cricket in Ireland, but if you could get people there and it takes off, then it would be a boost to both the local economies in terms of jobs and the local sporting scene.
I think that Ireland could ultimately develop a professional cricket county system, but it would cost a lot of money. They would need to build the infrastructure - grounds, facilities, youth systems etc - and would then need to put more money into signing up the talent, and the staff. It would cost a lot to set up, and a lot of money to run as well. And to make it financially viable, it would need to eventually break even and our own counties are struggling to do this, and many of them are in a lot of debt and struggling.
So sure, putting the money into Irish cricket would be a good thing for the game. But there would need to be significant demand for it to make it even viable. Would they be able to pull a few thousand to the grounds to watch 4 day cricket, one day, and T20 cricket?
Maybe, maybe not. If they couldn't, the clubs wouldn't be able to build themselves up financially as they'd probably always be working at a loss. So I think what they need to do is set up say a major T20 competition and build that up, and see what success comes of it. If it draws enough fans, perhaps introduced a major one day competition, and see what success comes of that. And if in the next five years these two tournaments are drawing fans in, and the players are improving and more people are wanting to play and watch, bring in a four day game. And by this point cricket Ireland should have enough infrastructure to support it.
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Topic: Ireland v England (Read 7616 times)