Ireland

The Ireland cricket team is the cricket team representing all of Ireland. Because of political difficulties, the Irish Cricket Union (ICU) was not elected to the International Cricket Council (ICC) until 1993, and qualified for the World Cup  for the first time in 2007. The Irish Cricket Union is the governing body of Irish cricket. The Irish cricket team is an amateur one, with players forced to take time away from their full-time jobs to represent their country in cricket. Efforts have been made to professionalise the team although funding has been a difficulty. Despite the challenging financial environment, Cricket Ireland has announced 13.01.2010 additional sponsorship funding to increase from two to six the number of full time professional players with partial funding for a further four county players.

The first match played by an Irish team was in 1855. Since then, Ireland have gained a reputation for giant-killing. Ireland played their first One Day International (ODI) in 2006 against England. Since then, they have gone on to play 39 ODIs, resulting in 16 victories, 19 defeats, 3 no results, and 1 tie. Ireland's greatest cricketing success to date was in the 2007 Cricket World Cup, where they achieved a tie against Zimbabwe and victories over Pakistan and Bangladesh, and ended the tournament ranked 10th overall in the official ICC rankings above Zimbabwe and Kenya.

Ireland take part in the ICC Trophy, the European Cricket Championship (which they have won three times and hold the title of European champions), and the ICC Intercontinental Cup, which they have won consecutively three times since 2005 and are the current holders. The team also competes in the Friends Provident Trophy against English counties. Ireland is an Associate member of the ICC; Associates are the next level of team below those that play Test cricket. Due to their recent successes in the Intercontinental Cup and at the World Cup, they have been labelled the "leading Associate".Ireland is currently one of the team's in Division 1 of Associate Members of International Cricket Council who has One Day International and T20 International status. After the tremendous success at International stage , Cricket Ireland has applied for Full Membership from the International Cricket Council. Ireland have recently won the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier 2008 and 2009 ICC World Cup Qualifier and qualified for 2009 World Twenty20 and 2011 Cricket World Cup. Being a full member will allow Ireland to be a permanent One Day International and eventually granting them Test status. On 20 June 2010, Ireland were included on an International Cricket Council list of countries that would provisionally occupy the second-tier of any future two-tier Test structure.

Ireland players

A van der Merwe

AC Botha

AD Poynter

Allan Eastwood

AR Cusack

AR White

CA Young

DT Johnston

G Dockrell

GC Wilson

GE Kidd

JD Hall

JF Mooney

JP Bray

KJ O Brien

N Jones

NJ O Brien

P Connell

Pr Stirling

RD McCann

RM West

WB Rankin

Wk McCallan

WTS Porterfield