Prior to the Lord’s Test, Cricket Ireland high performance director Richard Holdsworth’s description of the match as a “special occasion but not a pinnacle event” led to some raised eyebrows and Deutrom said Holdsworth had been attempting to show how “we have to make choices and those choices are driven largely by our constrained financial circumstances”.
“The vast majority of the commentary that he gave was precisely respectful of the Test match, of the team that we were playing and of the environment that we were in.”
Deutrom added that Harry Tector’s rise to sixth in the ICC’s ODI batting rankings and Josh Little’s participation in the Indian Premier League demonstrate the progress that Irish cricket has been making despite “the bump in the road” in Zimbabwe.
Cricket Ireland remains optimistic that financial backing from the Irish Government will enable the building of a new national cricket stadium at the National Sports Campus in Dublin, which will ensure that Ireland can be a co-host at the 2030 World Cup.
“With new ICC funding coming in next year there is a great opportunity for us to be able to invest more and more [in the game].
“At the top of the game, of all the cricket nations on this planet, perhaps bar the USA, bearing in mind the opportunities that we have in the next few years – you might throw in the potential for Olympic inclusion, the potential for our women to participate in the Commonwealth Games, the fact that we are going to be co-hosting games in the 2030 World Cup – I still strongly believe that there is no other nation that has got our headroom for growth and success.”