The Case for Irish Inclusion at the Top Tier of One Day International Cricket

An examination of Ireland's performance in online cricket simulators suggests that they are worthy of being granted more opportunities at the top level. This article looks at some of the real-world considerations that back up the simulator results.
Statistical comparisons
According to the official ODI rankings, Ireland have five batsmen in the top hundred. Paul Stirling is the highest ranked of these, coming in at 23rd, one place ahead of the West Indian Chris Gayle. By comparison, the West Indies have six players in the top hundred, Zimbabwe five, and the Netherlands and Kenya two apiece. This suggests that Ireland belong in the same class as the lower-ranked of the top sides, rather than with the other associates.
Ireland also have five bowlers in the top 100. This number is equal to England, and only one fewer than World Cup semifinalists New Zealand. Their top bowler, Trent Johnston, is only one place lower than Zaheer Khan, the spearhead of the world champion Indian bowling attack.
Stirling averages over 42 with the bat in ODIs, which is impressive even considering that the quality of bowling faced by Ireland is lower than that of the top nations. Also, William Porterfield and Kevin O'Brien both average over 30. If you consider that Eoin Morgan might still be representing Ireland if the opportunities were present, there is a quartet of batsmen who could certainly compete at the top level.
Past results
Bearing in mind that Ireland have played fairly often against full nations, their scorecard of 29 wins to 28 losses (from 61 matches) suggests that they have been a competitive side for a number of years. When given the opportunity to perform under pressure on the biggest stage in world cricket, they have exceeded expectations, triumphing over Pakistan and Bangladesh in the 2007 World Cup and England in the 2011 version.
Their victory over Pakistan in 2007 knocked the much more fancied Pakistanis out of the tournament, and allowed Ireland to progress to the Super Eight stages. In this second round, after performing creditably against England, they beat Bangladesh.
The most glorious moment in Irish cricket history came in 2011, though, where they chased down a massive target of 328 to beat England by three wickets, with Kevin O'Brien scoring the fastest World Cup century along the way. Although they were thumped by South Africa in the pool stages, they put up a good fight against Bangladesh (losing by 27 runs) and the West Indies (44).
Although Ireland could not be said to have dominated the lesser nations, recent results show that they are in a different class to the Netherlands and Canada, teams that they are usually grouped with. In 2010 they narrowly lost an away series to Zimbabwe, drew a series with Canada (their one loss being a close affair decided by the Duckworth-Lewis system) and thrashed the Netherlands. They also recorded a solid win against Bangladesh in Belfast.
The need for cricket's expansion and its popularity in Ireland
Other facts suggest that cricket in Ireland is rapidly gaining in popularity. Kevin O'Brien has over 5,000 likes on his Cricinfo page. By comparison, the legendary Wasim Akram has a little over 1,200. The 3,000+ likes on the Ireland team page is more than the 2,000 New Zealand has, even though the two nations have a roughly equal population and New Zealand is an established team at the highest level, with cricket its second most popular sport.
All of these facts paint a clear picture. The time is right to make Ireland a full nation, and the ICC ought to act fast before this excellent opportunity to expand global cricket slips away.

If you want to see Ireland in simulated action against the top teams, have a go at this One Day International flash cricket [http://www.odicricsim.com] simulator.