This might be jumping the gun a bit before any official announcement, but after tweeting earlier that he's now officially an Irish citizen, it appears that 2011 player of the year Tim Murtagh is now eligible for Ireland. Having already expressed an interest in turning out for the boys in green, Tim getting an Irish passport seems to have all but officially confirmed that he will represent the land of his three grandparents. So what does this mean?
While both Tim and Cricket Ireland have (publicly at least) been fairly non-committal about the matter, on air with Kevin Hand Tim said that were he to decide to play for Ireland, he wouldn't want to just turn up and play at a World Cup, he'd want to do it the "right way" and play in the various qualifiers that Ireland have to go through, and their international series across the globe. If Tim does, as now expected, commit to Ireland, he'll likely join Paul Stirling in missing Middlesex games every now and again to pull on the green shirt of his adopted nation.
Luckily for Middlesex fans, the Irish fixture schedule doesn't look hugely strenuous at this stage. Ireland are off for a six game series in the ICC Intercontinental Cup in Kenya next month, as well as seven World T20 Qualifiers, but all of those games will be over by the time Middlesex's season starts on April 5th. In fact, if Tim does play for Ireland in these games, he should be much more match sharp and ready in time for the big county kick off, which can only be good news.
Unfortunately, the official Ireland fixtures which will take place after this are disconcertingly vague. Ireland are to play Intercontinental Cup games against Afghanistan, the UAE, Holland and Scotland, but these are currently marked as "date not yet confirmed". The only confirmed international that Ireland have at this stage is on June 23, where they take on Australia in Belfast - which comes one day after we're due to take on Sussex in a T20 at Hove, so no huge loss for Tim to miss what's likely to be a dead rubber (by which I mean we'll have already qualified...). Other than that Tim, and Paul Stirling too, will be available for the bulk of Middlesex's fixtures this summer.
I don't know how far away any of this is away from being confirmed, or whether it'll go through at all, but it can only be a good thing for all concerned. While Middlesex fans will be upset to see a key player miss a couple of games, few will begrudge Tim the opportunity to play international cricket after years of being cruelly snubbed by England. On a professional level for Tim it can only help his game, as testing himself against the best of the world will only add to his experience, and hopefully Middlesex will see the fruits of this when he returns from his travels. And Murtagh missing a couple of games may give young players like Gurjit Sandhu or Robbie Williams the chance to get into the team and impress.
So good luck to Tim as (if) he embarks on a new adventure, and here's to plenty of wickets for both Middlesex and Ireland alike!
Wow. Good luck to Tim.
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