The "silly points"

Almost a year to the day Ireland backed by their ‘Blarney army’ attempted to turn the world of cricket on its head when they sent home the mighty Pakistan from the cricket world cup, the Irish were once again on the cricket field.

However unlike the overwhelming media coverage and the attention that surrounded their World beating heroics in the Caribbean on this occasion their assignment was a much lower profile, almost invisible on th radar of World cricket, 3 match series against Bangladesh in Bangladesh.

As it were the series ended with a rather morale bashing 3-0 whitewash for the tourists and as the glory days of the achievements in the 2007 World Cup fade away so do the realities of Ireland’s real position in world cricket start to take hold.

To the casual cricket fan a Test nation comprehensively outclassing non-test opposition in front of its own. However the heavy margin of victory by the much maligned latest test nation over the associates latest golden-child leaves a number of questions lingering in ones mind

1. If Bangladesh are such a poor test nation then how bad are the teams behind it that don’t quite have test status?

2. If Ireland are the best Associate around at the moment then just how big is the gap between them and not just the Bangladeshes of this world but other supposedly Test Class teams?

3. If this is Ireland just one year after they so comprehensively outclassed Bangladesh at the World Cup does it mean they are moving backwards or are Bangladesh just imrpoving faster and why?

4. How big will this supposed gap be by the next World cup if indeed there is a growing gap between Bangladesh the weakest test nation, and Ireland one of the strongest Associates?

5. What is the ICC doing about this?

6. What are Ireland and the other Associates in a similar position doing on their own about it?