IT WAS brilliant to see Ireland playing England in a one-day international at Lord’s, even if it was probably a decade overdue. The day after Andrew Strauss hosted Richard Holdsworth, Cricket Ireland’s performance director, in the ECB’s offices at Lord’s, discussing what Ireland need to do to ready themselves for Test cricket.
Both of these are welcome signs that, after too many years of acting as the bullying big brother, England now actually want to help grow cricket in Ireland – and Scotland and the Netherlands too. That is not only the right thing to do, bu...