Ireland and Afghanistan
22 June 2017
The ICC granted Full Membership and Test status to Ireland and Afghanistan in 2017, but the lack of guaranteed fixtures and the challenges of sustaining Test cricket raised questions about whether the expansion was genuine or merely symbolic.
Irish cricket clubs and visiting English sides
1842-06-01
The Phoenix Cricket Club, founded in Phoenix Park, Dublin, in 1830, became the centre of Irish cricket through the 1840s and hosted visits from leading English sides including All-England Eleven fixtures in the late 1840s. Cricket in Ireland in this era was primarily an Anglo-Irish and military game, concentrated in Dublin and the garrison towns, but the Phoenix Club's ambition and the quality of its ground pointed toward a broader Irish cricket future.