Yesterday, Ranchal was asking me why England, Ireland & Scotland are playing in world cup cricket if they are wholly called UK? What is the relevance of UK then?
Such questions give us an opportunity to learn a bit of history and gain a bit of perspective.
The UK has four constituent parts, three of which — the ancient nations of England, Wales and Scotland — are located on the island of Great Britain. The fourth part is Northern Ireland is the northern most part of a totally different island. Southern Ireland (Republic of Ireland) is an independent country. Independence for the Republic of Ireland in 1922 followed the partition of the island of Ireland two years previously, with six of the nine counties of the province of Ulster remaining within the UK, which then changed to the current name in 1927.
Remember the IRA (Irish Republican Army)? It was fighting for independence of the Northern Ireland from the UK. There are various versions of the IRA. But by and large it is understood that they have given up their armed uprising and that they want to follow the political path to secure independence from UK for the Northern Ireland.
The Ireland cricket team is the cricket team representing all Ireland (i.e. both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland). Due to political difficulties, the Irish Cricket Union was not elected to the International Cricket Council until 1993, and qualified for the World Cup for the first time in 2007. However, cricket has been played in Ireland since at least the 1880s - including a tour of North America in 1888. Their first match with first-class status was played in 1902 against a London County side including W.G. Grace. The Irish won convincingly, by 238 runs.
Ireland's greatest cricketing success to date was in the 2007 Cricket World Cup, where a tie against Zimbabwe and a victory over Pakistan in the group matches qualified them for the "Super 8" stage of the tournament.
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1 Comment:
In fact cricket has been played in Ireland since the late 18th century and the first recognised match involving the national side was in 1855 when Ireland took on the Gentlemen of England in the Phoenix Park, Dublin. The other slight inaccuracy is when you say that political differences kept Ireland out of the ICC until 1993. The reason it took Ireland so long to join the ICC was that several people within the Irish Cricket Union wanted to remain attached to what was then the TCCB (now the ECB). Eventually it was decided to break away as an independent union and apply for Associate membership of the ICC. It had nothing to do with the wider political situation in Ireland at that time. It was purely a cricketing decision.
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