Richard Gillis ponders Ireland's new-found status and looks at the likely implications, financial and competitive, for cricket here

The Ireland story at this World Cup has added some much-needed romance to a tournament dogged by negative headlines.

The giant-killing acts, the Blarney Army and the general sense of goodwill engendered by the team's performances have built support for the men in green beyond the cricket followers of the Caribbean. Now, Ireland's cricketers have officially broken into the big league.

The win over Bangladesh, their second against Test-level opposition, following the victory against Pakistan, has lifted them to 12th in the ICC official rankings. This move carries with it "official ODI status" until 2009 and opens up a new and potentially lucrative era for cricket in Ireland, one that starts after their final World Cup game, against Sri Lanka in Grenada tomorrow.

The one-day-international calendar runs for virtually 12 months a year and outside of the official ICC events is made up of small triangular tournaments, run by individual cricket boards or created by sponsors.

Ireland's success means the team will play more often against Test-level countries.

Already, the ICU have received an invitation to play in a one-day triangular series in New Zealand, and after this latest promotion other invitations are set to follow.

Already scheduled are the season's Friends Provident matches against English counties, and in September India are due to visit Stormont for a series of one-day internationals created for Indian television. The likely opposition will be South Africa. Ireland's elevation may mean they play both sides during the series.

Beyond these fixtures, the game in Ireland is set for a windfall. In hosting the world's best teams to play on Irish soil, the ICU can sell their own TV rights, to overseas as well as Irish broadcasters.

"Cricket has muscled its way onto the map," Niall Cogley, chief executive of Setanta Ireland, told The Irish Times. "Their success on the field has created a TV-rights market for themselves."

This is good news on the commercial front too. Bank of Ireland's sponsorship deal with the ICU runs out at the end of the World Cup and Warren Deutrom, the chief executive of Ireland cricket, is in a much stronger negotiating position than when the team left for Jamaica in early March. The Bank of Ireland deal is valued at €200,000 over three years.

On a personal level, the promise of extra money coming into the game may pose tough questions for some of the Ireland players as they find their amateur status shifting to that of semi-professional.

A number of players are set to take up offers of English county contracts following this World Cup: bowler Boyd Rankin will join Derbyshire; Eoin Morgan will return to Middlesex; William Porterfield is weighing up an offer from Gloucestershire; and Niall O'Brien begins afresh at Northants.

If, however, the ICU find themselves in a position to offer contracts to their players for the first time, some may be persuaded that a season of international cricket would be of greater benefit, and more fun, than a stint in the county championship.

Meanwhile, players such as Kyle McCallan and Trent Johnston, who were thought to be considering retirement from the game, may find the lure of payment and overseas tours incentive enough to think again.

Once an associate member has played at least 10 one-day internationals in total, it has the opportunity to be promoted to the main table. To gain this promotion, the associate must either achieve two wins against full members, as Ireland has done against Pakistan and Bangladesh, or achieve one win against a full member and have won more than 60 per cent of matches against other associates.

Currently, the table is made up of the 10 full members plus Kenya.

In accordance with a previous ICC Board decision, Ireland has ODI status until 2009, a status also enjoyed by the top six associate members, the others being Kenya, Scotland, the Netherlands, Canada and Bermuda.