Promote Ireland to Full ODI status

Hurrah the underdogs. Ireland have done themselves & every cricket lover proud by their performances in the T20 World Cup 2009. Some people might have doubted their victory over Pakistan in 2007 World Cup as a fluke or a slice of "Irish" luck. But now by defeating Bangaldesh in the league phase and advancing through to the Super Eights they have proved that it was anything but luck.

I think time has come for ICC to elevate Ireland to full ODI status. They have shown enough talent, consistency, tenacity and improvement to excel with the "big boys". With more exposure to quality cricket, Ireland can only improve further. Especially the O'Brien brothers are really good players. With Ireland, getting ODI status, good quality players like Eoin Morgan, Ed Joyce should come back to Ireland fold & Ireland will strengthen further.

I was watching the T20 worldcup, and followed closely the matches played by Ireland (since they were in the same group as India) and was impressed by their performance. The O'Brien brothers played superbly & the bowlers from the veteran Dave Johnston to Alex Cusack gave Ireland more than fighting chance to get more wins.

The weak link at this time appears to be their batting with their heavy reliance on the O'Brien brothers for good totals or chases and with Porterfield failing consistently, the batting did look very brittle in the middle. But with return of the likes of Morgan and Joyce, the batting will be decently strong. I really think ICC should take affirmative steps to grant Ireland full ODI status.