Not having much to report on as a result of a washout in club games yesterday we return to the examination of the player turnout figures for Leinster Open Competitions.
This time last year we did an interim breakdown of the origins of players who had taken part in OC matches up to the start of June. It showed that out of just over 1600 players who had donned the whites [or other colours] just over half had given their origin i.e. where they learnt to play cricket, as outside of Ireland.The breakdown of nationalities is set out in the chart below.
The figures are much the same this year. The salient points are that less that 50% of those playing are known to have learnt their cricket in Ireland. If you exclude youth participants [who are all deemed to have learnt their cricket in Ireland even if some may have moved from abroad] it shows that at least 65% of adult players have non-Irish origins. Indeed a quick perusal of some of the names would suggest that a number have been classified as Irish [default option] when they actually learnt their cricket elsewhere. Best estimate - between a quarter and a third of all adult players still involved have grown up with the sport in Leinster. Something to consider as we try to promote the growth of the sport, reduce the numbers giving up the sprot and get people to take up the game as adults. It also shows how important the sport is for purposes of community integration and of how reliant domestic cricket has become on those those who have come to Ireland to study or work.