CRICKET:THE IRISH cricket team could be forgiven for never wanting to set foot in the Caribbean state of Guyana again after their damp departure from the World Twenty20 finals on Tuesday night.

Been there, done that, bought the rain jacket . . . The abandonment of their final Group D clash against England caused by persistent heavy showers robbed Ireland of a chance of chasing down a modest total of 121 to claim a place in the Super Eights of a world event for the third straight time.

The logic of the ICC bringing six of the group games to the South American Caribbean state at the start of their rainy season was always a risk. And in the end it backfired as only two of those games played out over their full duration.

In many respects if Ireland had have got back out and chased down a revised Duckworth Lewis total it would have proved particularly harsh on an England side that lost to the West Indies after they chased down a revised total in six overs on Monday.

Not that the Irish players would have been bothered too much with returning to Barbados and St Lucia to play in the Super Eights while England and Eoin Morgan headed home.

The ICC’s decision to get rid of rain days in world events combined with the Duckworth Lewis calculations proving inequitable in many occasions in the Twenty20 format is far from ideal.

TV is king in the world of ICC finances, with the tight scheduling of the World Twenty20 leaving no space for games to go into a second day. But for the players it is utterly frustrating that a 20-over contest can come down to 30 deliveries.

Ireland left for the Caribbean on April 1st to prepare for this event, with team sponsors RSA giving them an extra €100,000 towards their preparation for the event.

In the end a poor batting display against the West Indies in their opening game cost them dearly, with England going through to the Super Eights due to their better run rate.

But their were plenty of positives for Ireland coach Phil Simmons to take away as he builds towards next year’s 50-over World Cup, where they are guaranteed six games during the group stages.

One of the outstanding performances came from 17-year-old left-arm spinner George Dockrell, who will now return to Gonzaga College in Dublin to focus on his upcoming Leaving Cert exams.

Fast-tracked from the Ireland Under-19 side, Dockrell only made his senior debut during the recent tour to Sri Lanka, before going on to play a huge part in the World T20 qualifiers in the UAE.

To then bowl eight overs for just 35 runs over the two games, taking three wickets against the West Indies, marks the Leinster player down as a special talent.

But Ireland captain William Porterfield believes a move towards Test status is vital if we are to keep young talent like Dockrell and Paul Stirling from following the route taken by Morgan, and Ed Joyce before him.

“In the long run, if we are to progress as a nation, we’re going to have to hang on to our bigger players and it’s not going to be easy because we can’t offer them Test cricket,” said Porterfield.

“Hopefully we’ll have that status in years to come and get on the future tours programme, get more one-day internationals and Twenty20s against the bigger teams.

“And if we can get to that stage and perform more consistently then they’ve got to look at Ireland as a serious contender to get up to that stage.”