Who Is The Strongest Associate Side?

Strongest associate side?

  • Kenya

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Ireland

    Votes: 12 80.0%

  • Scotland

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Netherlands

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Canada

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Afghanistan

    Votes: 3 20.0%

  • Bermuda

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • UAE

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Other (name in thread)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    15
Top Contributors
R

Richard the Third

BigCricket Administrator
We have the main contenders as being:

Kenya - traditional top dogs but floundering of late
Ireland - steady team, some decent players and able to spring a shock
Scotland - much like Ireland, less strength though
Netherlands - Somewhere between Ireland and Scotland
Canada - Always there or there abouts, maybe lacking that class player
Afghanistan - new boys on the block but look handy
Bermuda - had it, lost it, fielded a fat bloke
UAE - were always the minnows when I was growing up but fell away somewhat

Any more? I want to hear your point of view on this one. Who is the strongest and which team has the best chance of one day gaining test status?
 
Ireland are the strongest by far then it's a bit of a raffle after that. Kenya and Scotland have been on the slide while the Netherlands and Afghanistan have been improving a lot. Bermuda, Canada and UAE have all had their moments but would be the bottom three quite easily.
 
I would agree with ljp to a degree. Ireland has 3 victories against full members in ICC tournaments. They have the best chance of progressing but I think they have managed themselves best. Invested in youth, coaching and getting alot of their players to play county cricket in the UK. A success story in my book.

Then the Netherlands with their imports (Ten Doeschate played professional cricket in South Africa before moving on), they have financial problems as does Scotland which could mean that they could slip down the rankings. Kenya has been nothing short of a disaster since making the Semis in 2003. Financial irregularities, player strikes and bad coaching has left them nowhere (Steve Tikolo must be playing in this 3/4 world cup). Canada is basically an expat side.

Two sides that you can add to your list:
Namibia (They play in the domestic cricket scene in South Africa, below franchise cricket) but have struggled to qualify after 2003 due to the emergence of Afghanistan etc.
Uganda is another case of the ICC trying to grow the game.. they have some South African help but are far away of featuring at a World Cup and World T20.
 
Kenya's demise has been fairly rapid which is disappointing to say the least. I'm surprised how far they have dropped off since 2003, they look nothing like the side that made the semi-finals in that tournament.
 
Another strong performance from Ireland last night against India, probably should be playing more ODIs against Test nations outside of the World Cup.
 
It's such a shame, Ireland and some of the other good associate sides like Afganastan and the Dutch aren't allowed to play in the next WC! Ireland played better than Bangladesh and Zimbabwe at this WC
 
I think Ireland has plans to become a full ICC member with the goal of eventually playing tests. I reckon they'd be more deserving of test status than Bangladesh.
 
Bangladesh was given Test status-ship too early. I think we can all agree, Ireland need it now though otherwise they could lose the chance all together with players playing for England. Eoin Morgan has taken his chance and Ed Joyce tried to. This is why Ireland need it.
 
Ireland won't get test status anytime soon, not until they prove themselves to be a class above the other associate sides in the four-day games. As soon as they can do that and have reasonable form against the test nations in the one-day side of things they will get test status.
 
Agree with ljp and hope that the ICC does give them the same backing that they gave Bangladesh. I do think that the time has come for the ICC to stop England from taking their best talent. Note Boyd Rankin has been added to the England Lion's team.
 
Really? That's another bad loss for Ireland, first Joyce (although he came back), Morgan and now Rankin.

Just quietly, England must not have a lot of depth if Rankin is in their second XI.
 
Ljp86 said:
Really? That's another bad loss for Ireland, first Joyce (although he came back), Morgan and now Rankin.

Just quietly, England must not have a lot of depth if Rankin is in their second XI.
Click to expand...

Well, Ireland didn't bat very well but if England had made this a serious series rather than a one off practice game. We would see some different results and as for the test statuship issue, once Ireland get it. They have no excuse for wanting to play for England even though I can't understand them wanting to do it now.
 
I would say Ireland and Afghanistan.

Afgahnistan took silver from Asian games in 2010 beating Pakistan (although clearly pakistan didn't field their strongest team) in Semi final and losing to Bangladesh in the final. Apparently some of the Afghan players have played with MCC before so although their talent pool is small, everyone there is a Spartan in their own sense.

Irish - I am impressed with the shock win over England in the world cup, they play with determination and courage so I like these underdogs.

The ICC needs to maintain this level of excitement for the countries without test status by offering them a path to test status if they are serious about making cricket a popular sport around the world.
 
klarissa said:
I would say Ireland and Afghanistan.

Afgahnistan took silver from Asian games in 2010 beating Pakistan (although clearly pakistan didn't field their strongest team) in Semi final and losing to Bangladesh in the final. Apparently some of the Afghan players have played with MCC before so although their talent pool is small, everyone there is a Spartan in their own sense.

Irish - I am impressed with the shock win over England in the world cup, they play with determination and courage so I like these underdogs.

The ICC needs to maintain this level of excitement for the countries without test status by offering them a path to test status if they are serious about making cricket a popular sport around the world.
Click to expand...

Agreed
 
futureblackcap said:
Bangladesh was given Test status-ship too early. I think we can all agree, Ireland need it now though otherwise they could lose the chance all together with players playing for England. Eoin Morgan has taken his chance and Ed Joyce tried to. This is why Ireland need it.
Click to expand...

actually you have presented an interesting viewpoint here about bangladesh being given test status too early. It reminds me of the womens cricket scene where Hong Kong has been denied the chance to play level with Bangladeshi women after winning ACC tournament twice in a row, although the 20/20 format would had been used as an argument to discredit HK's ability to compete at ODIs 50 overs level. It just seemed like at the senior level, there is something fishy going on.

In Asia, South Asian countries dominate the cricket scene but we have to take note that this is partly due to a lack of participation from other countries such as China, Thailand, Singapore etc by which cricket is still at its infancy. and of course, sometimes people generalise and think that a country from a certain part of the world must be born to be good at this sport.
 
klarissa said:
I would say Ireland and Afghanistan.

Afgahnistan took silver from Asian games in 2010 beating Pakistan (although clearly pakistan didn't field their strongest team) in Semi final and losing to Bangladesh in the final. Apparently some of the Afghan players have played with MCC before so although their talent pool is small, everyone there is a Spartan in their own sense.

Irish - I am impressed with the shock win over England in the world cup, they play with determination and courage so I like these underdogs.

The ICC needs to maintain this level of excitement for the countries without test status by offering them a path to test status if they are serious about making cricket a popular sport around the world.
Click to expand...

Great post, Ireland are the best associated side by a mile and Afghanistan have rocketed out of nowhere over the past few years to be right up there as well. As for test status, both countries are a long way off that at the moment although Ireland are showing they can match at the top level. I think for Ireland to improve in the longer version of the game they should be touring more often and playing against "A" sides, I believe that would be very beneficial to them in the long term.
 
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