Published Tuesday, 24 January 2012
Ireland, who topped off an impressive couple of years by beating England at last year's World Cup, are currently rated as the best associate nation and have made it clear their ultimate ambition is to become the 11th Test-playing nation.
On Tuesday, those positive words took on a more concrete feel as Deutrom unveiled the organisation's vision for the future in Dublin, including plans to double the centrally contracted player pool to 23, establish a first-class domestic structure in Ireland for the first time and to fund extensive grassroots programmes with increased commercial funding.
The road ahead is not an easy one, a fact Deutrom appreciates, but he feels that by meeting every expectation set forth by the International Cricket Council the aim is also a realistic one.
Ireland currently play one-day and Twenty20 internationals, and successfully campaigned last year against a decision to bar associate members from the World Cup.
They nevertheless face the prospect of seeing their most talented cricketers switching their allegiance to England in a bid to taste Test cricket - with Ed Joyce and Eoin Morgan having already made the move and the likes of Boyd Rankin, Paul Stirling and George Dockrell all tipped to follow suit.
Deutrom shares the same ambitions as those players and wants the ICC to take note.
"Unless we have a pathway in place that leads to Test cricket we are always going to lose our best players," Deutrom told Press Association Sport.
"We've seen it with Ed and now with Eoin, while Boyd is in the England Lions reckoning. At the moment the ICC says Test cricket is the ultimate form of the game, the version most invested with the game's traditions and values and if we're not sharing the aspirations of our players, who want to play Test cricket, we will always be second rate.
"We are already the number one associate side, so what is our aim? To accept the status quo? No. We want to grow and develop and be as good as we can be. If not we will always lose our best players."
The institution of a viable first-class system is the biggest hurdle for Ireland, who would not be considered as a full member nation without it, but today's proposals included comprehensive plans to raise participation to 50,000, focus on youth and school cricket and provide clearer pathways to the national side.
Should the plans be realised, Deutrom does not see any sporting reason why Ireland should not become the first country since Bangladesh in 2000 to join cricket's top table.
"What you saw last year (in the row over World Cup eligibility) was a shout from beneath that said 'we're not just going to play Twenty20 cricket'," he continued.
"In terms of business structure, playing achievements and outlook Ireland are as different to an affiliate nation as Australia are to Zimbabwe or Bangladesh.
"We have decades of cricket history on this island and that history is not in T20 cricket. Test cricket is what people here have grown up watching on television.
"It would be unfair to deny a pathway to the highest form of the game.
"We have to believe this is possible. The ICC has a set of criteria for full member and Test status. That opportunity is there and if we conform to the specification that the ICC themselves have set out then the only barrier to us becoming a Test nation would be political. And if it is political then it is unreasonable."
To gain admittance to the Test arena in the future, Ireland would need to be proposed and seconded by full member countries at ICC board level.
While England, in their role as guardian and promoters of the game in Europe, would be firmly expected to throw their weight behind the cause, Deutrom indicated no formal discussions had yet taken place with the England and Wales Cricket Board.