What is the responsibility, if any, of a club to bring players through their youth set up to perform at senior club and higher levels. It is a question that is likely to become more important over the next few years as the demands on our domestic playing resources increases. We will need greater numbers capable of playing more games at national and provincial level and across the full range of formats.

It is commonplace to say that the future of cricket in Ireland depends on our clubs. But how effective have clubs been in producing players for premier club [D1/D2], provincial and national levels. At the risk of exciting controversy [although that may not be such a terrible thing to do] a table has been compiled that attempts to chart the playing origins of the most likely 12 man squad for each club in the RCD1/RCD2.

No judgements are made about the composition of teams set out in the table. It may be the case that a balance will have to be struck between the standard of cricket and the number of domestic players taking part. But there is no a priori right number and no specific prescription beyond looking to bring through to a high standard as many domestic players as possible.

Best efforts are made in tracing origins but if there are any corrections to be made send them in to cricketleinster@gmail.com.

To explain the Table. The first column is an effort to count the number of players who are Irish qualified but learnt their cricket before they came to Ireland. There may be others who have been working here for a number of years and would thus qualify for citizenship but either have not done so or I do not know about.

The second includes all the players who went through the youth sections in any club in Leinster. The third is the subset of these that were produced in the home club [if a youth player moved before they were 15 then they are counted as part of the home club].

The fourth column is the number of Senior/Bolt Leinster Lightning Leinster players from a club who have been part of match day squads this year - the two figures are LL [any format] and LL Bolt only including the latter where they have not also played on the full team.

Some clubs have produced players who have gone on to play in the senior teams of other clubs [numbers captured in Column 6]. And finally the clubs that have produced current international players who are playing abroad.

The breakdown of the playing origins of non-domestically produced cricketers competing at Division 1 / 2 are set out in the graph below.