STANCE NEEDED TO PROTECT INTERPROVINCIAL PROGRESS

It appears pretty obvious that negotiations regarding the continuation of the Hanley Energy Interprovincial series remain on-going for now and hopefully we will hear some positive news early in the New Year.

Having come to the end of the initial 3-year phase it is as good a time as any to take stock and CricketI reland will probably now look at what they can tweak ahead of the next segment of competition.

While the majority of things have worked so far, there are clearly areas that can be further examined, including the scheduling. Some worked better than others however and the important aspect of the learning process is that there’s no shame in recognising where you’ve gone wrong.

To that end, and I’m not sure whether this should be addressed to CI, the NWCU or both, the whole business of transferring between Unions is a major issue. It became an issue early on in the life of the series and on the back of changes to NCU rules in 2014, it is likely to become a much bigger issue in the future.

Last year the Warriors lost one of their most influential players in Johnny Thompson and for a totally home-grown squad, it was a huge loss. Just to be clear on this by the way, that is in no way reflective of CIYMS who have done nothing other than try to improve their club. The Belmont outfit are working at a rate of knots on and off the field and “JT” fitted them perfectly within the rule structure for the region.

This year Graeme McCarter is also heading to Belfast for his club cricket and his loss will also be keenly felt within the Warriors camp.

Losing two players in two seasons is certainly no epidemic, but if rumours circulating in Dublin that the North West could be losing a third before long are true- that would be a savage blow.

Even if that particular move doesn’t happen, there is every reason to fear that over the next few years the top North West players will become softer targets for the open market of the NCU. And for a region busting its collective hump to bring through more youngsters than you could shake a stick at, it’s a massive disadvantage.
There are no guarantees that in two or three years time, the McClintocks, Stuart Thompson and Andy McBrine could be lining up AGAINST the Warriors in the Interpro series.

And yet the irony is that there is a simple way around this problem.

When the Interpros started in 2013 I asked the question what Lightning would gain by playing Kevin, Niall, John Boy, Max and the likes if the purpose of the series was to develop the next generation of Ireland Internationals. The reply was that the competition wasn’t set up solely as a platform for International cricket but was the opportunity for regions to play best v best and so develop their own talent.

Well that’s worked a treat.

It had been suggested in the past that there could be a “cooling period” following inter-regional transfer; i.e. perhaps Graeme McCarter would need to spend a full season in the NCU before qualifying for the Knights. Obviously CI however will want their contracted players involved in the series, so that’s a non-starter.

The far more creditable solution is to allow, nay encourage, players to play for their home Union, regardless of where they’re playing club cricket. It’s no secret that Johnny wanted to remain a Warrior last year and just about everyone in the North West wanted him to be selected.

The rules on qualification are a touch ambiguous if truth be told and it appears that he may have been facilitated had the NWCU made a request and CI agreed. As it was the local Union decided against that approach, however the question now is how long can we successfully display such bravado?

The Union is fiercely proud of its relative riches in emerging talent at present (certainly compared to the past decade or so) but we can’t afford to keep losing 1-2 key players to other teams every year in a 3 team league!
It is time to grasp the nettle. The Union needs to make a stance that it isn’t prepared to keep haemorrhaging players that it has invested years of time in. And don’t start with Graeme, start with Johnny.

Playing for the Warriors is a big deal for these lads and it shouldn’t matter if their club is Donemana, Downpatrick or the Denver Broncos.

Failure to make a stand now could set our representative ambition back to where it was prior to 2013. Doing nothing must not be an option.

Happy New Year…..