Inside Ireland’s win over England hides an important moment for the Ireland team’s future

Note: This article was originally written in July 2020, following this ODI. It wasn’t published anywhere so I’m uploading it here for portfolio purposes.

With Ireland beating England in Southampton, much focus in the cricket press will be on Stirling and Balbirnie’s mighty respective innings, but a less-discussed story of the day will be 20 year-old Harry Tector.

He walked out to the crease while Ireland needed 65 to win off 50 deliveries. Some viewers despaired. Sending Tector out, in his usual spot on the batting card, meant leaving the veteran Kevin O’Brien and the impressive Curtis Campher sat in the hutch. Yet, with a rare win over England in the balance, Ireland sent Tector out to contest just his 3rd ODI.

Harry the unlikely hero

Tector didn’t make much of an impact in the first two ODIs, and started this innings with a strike rate of 70. His first seven balls produced just five runs, as Ireland needed to start moving at far more than a run a ball if they were to cross the line.

It was, for a time, uncomfortable viewing. Tector struggled to get into a groove, clearly overthinking the game situation and agonising over every dot ball.

When he wasn’t trying to over-hit full deliveries, he resorted to exotic shots and funny flicks. Some viewers felt the absolute last emotion any batsman would want to instil in the audience — pity.

England’s confidence started to return as a sliver of despair went through the Ireland support. But Tector rallied, feasting on a few loose deliveries and casting the nerves away to the fence along with the ball. Settling into his innings, he showcased some lovely shots, including a sumptuous drive, and Ireland crossed the finish line to beat England.

Tector was a brave choice, but the right one

Sending Kevin O’Brien or Campher out would have satisfied many fans, not just in Ireland but around the world — being the World Cup champions, having an Irish captain (who played alongside some of the current Ireland team for Ireland), and just being England with all its colonial baggage, puts a big price on the England team’s scalp.

Not to mention, sending O’Brien or Campher out would undoubtedly have made an Ireland win more likely. At least based on the evidence we had about Tector going into this match. But sending Tector out shows us that Ireland’s coaches understand something important — that their job isn’t just to beat England at all costs.

Yes, the job is to win cricket matches, but winning matches is just part of the big picture. Ireland’s job is to secure a spot in the World Cup, and secure a future for Irish cricket. They need to win matches after Kevin O’Brien retires as well.

Actions speak louder than words

Securing a future means nurturing talent like Tector. If they had passed over Tector at such a crucial moment, it sends a message of its own. A very loud, very ugly one. It’s what in football you’d call a “small club mentality”.

It tells young Harry that beating England, getting one over the champs and their old mate the Irish skipper, is so all-consuming that they’d destroy the confidence of a young player like Tector to do it.

Thankfully, whether it was the coaches or the captain, Ireland sent a clear signal that they understand this. And in the process that they understand the job Ireland cricket has on their plate.

The Ireland team has enjoyed an iconic decade. They’ve been blessed with a crop of talent that has propelled Ireland into major international tournaments and, on its day, beaten the world’s big boys. But the cracks in the generation that brought them here are showing.

Ireland’s first test, and Ireland’s test now

Ireland’s first ever test match, against Pakistan in Dublin in 2018, was an epochal moment of recognition and celebration for Irish cricket and its players.

After long years chasing an elusive goal, with the goalposts ever-shifting and the conditions ever-changing, it happened. Ireland gained test status and a year later contested their first match.

Kevin O’Brien himself made the nation’s first half century, then century. Tim Murtagh gave the Pakistani batsmen a session that would make a casual viewer question who was the debutant team. It was a great match, played in fine spirit, and widely celebrated around the international cricket community.

While the joy of the occasion was still fresh, though, Ed Joyce announced his retirement from test cricket. Having spent long years pursuing a test cap, first for England then for seven years with Ireland, he represented his nation in a solitary test match and called it a day at the age of 40.

He serves a handy illustration for the job that the Irish cricket administrators have to do now. Because Joyce isn’t the only one coming to the end of his time with Ireland right now.

The aforementioned Kevin O’Brien has played 148 ODIs for Ireland, and he’s 36 years old. His brother, 38-year old Niall, played 103 ODIs, a solitary test match, and is now retired. They both played in Ireland’s first ever ODI in 2007 with William Porterfield, who is still playing for Ireland at 36.

The powerful Paul Stirling, arguably entering his peak as a batsman, is only 30, but has already played twelve years of cricket for Ireland. By the 2027 World Cup he’ll by approaching 40, with 20 years of cricket and probably about 200 ODIs behind him. Boyd Rankin, the big pace man, is now 36 years old, and also debuted in 2007.

I don’t list these players just to be a dismal doomsayer, but because it’s three years until the next World Cup. These players have put Irish cricket on their backs and taken it to a mountaintop. But having scaled one peak, there’s another one to climb. Unfortunately, some of today’s heroes won’t be able to make that journey.

It’s time to make sure the next cabs off the rank, like Tector, will be prepared when these legends of Irish cricket step back.

The bigger game

If the objective of the game was just to beat England, if that was the sum total objective of Irish cricket’s reason to be, they’d have sent O’Brien out in a flash. But it isn’t.

The objective of Irish cricket is to propel Ireland to the next World Cup (a bastard of a task with a ten-team tournament), and to cement themselves as a credible test nation. That’s what the current crop of players have spent so many long years working to achieve, but the house is built on shifting ground.

They need fresh talent to come in and flourish if they’re to keep what they’ve earned. Which is why it’s so vital Ireland invest in players like Tector, even if it means occasionally risking a snatch of defeat from the jaws of victory.