William Harman dating history

Details

First-class cricket matches are those between international teams or the highest standard of domestic teams in which teams have two innings each. Generally, matches are eleven players a side but there have been exceptions. Today, all matches must be scheduled to have at least three days' duration. The Ireland cricket team first played first-class cricket in 1902 against W. G. Grace's London County. From 1902, Ireland played 159 first-class matches prior to their elevation to Test status in June 2017. The majority of these matches were the annual Ireland v Scotland fixture, but others saw touring teams visiting Ireland during tours of England to play one first-class match against Ireland, normally a College Park, Dublin. Occasionally teams based in Ireland (or touring abroad) were afforded first-class status. These include Dublin University, the Gentlemen of Ireland, and Woodbrook Club and Ground, which all heavily featured Irish cricketers. Following the Irish War of Independence and the ban by the Gaelic Athletic Association in 1901 on playing "foreign", in practice, British, games, cricket went into decline across Ireland. However, it was able to survive in its Dublin, Belfast and North-West heartlands. The ban on playing "foreign" games was lifted in 1970, and cricket began to recover. Owing to Ireland's non-membership, and later associate membership of the International Cricket Council, many of the top Irish cricketers sought first-class experience in English county cricket, including some, such as Sir Tim O'Brien and Eoin Morgan playing Test cricket for England. The annual Ireland v Scotland fixture came to an end in 2000, with Ireland playing in the ICC Intercontinental Cup from 2004-2017, winning the competition on four occasions. With Test status granted to Ireland in 2017, for the first time matches in Inter-Provincial Championship had first-class status.