It wasn't quite the shot that rang around the world, but sport shifted unmistakably on its axis as a result of events in Kingston, Jamaica, last St Patrick's Day. Under a blackening sky, a bloke from Sydney struck a cricket ball way into the stands to spark delirious celebrations in the Caribbean and in numerous other pockets of the planet. Nothing seismic in that, you might say - but this was the captain of Ireland.

Two matches into his adopted country's Cricket World Cup history and the part-timers in green had tied one, won one and penetrated the world order by invading the tournament's cosy Super Eights.

As midnight beckoned in Rome, rugby fans crowded to watch with quizzical pride having heard on the grapevine that a stupendous entry in the annals of their country's sporting history was being contrived.

In Kilkenny, one viewer had watched with particularly goggle-eyed disbelief in a somehow deserted pub. Irish cricket's sole full-time administrator suspected that the family holiday he was interrupting might be his last for quite a while. Next dawn, his phone began to ring like the sirens on September 11, as the real-world employers of Ireland's heroes demanded to know when exactly these cricketers were going to get home. "Another four weeks, I'm afraid," was all Warren Deutrom could say.

Three hundred and sixty-six days on, Trent Johnston, the cricketer, and Deutrom, the chief executive, have fully digested what was achieved but are still working out how to nurse the inevitable come-down, manage a whole new set of expectations and challenges and guard the legacy.

Questions abound about where Irish cricket goes from here. The most obvious concerns finance: can this team, who performed so brilliantly when licensed to immerse themselves in full-time cricket for three months of last year, ever hope to go into competitive games with England or Australia (who might both be here next summer) on the same basis?

Because it is so new, Irish cricket is not yet self-financing. Funding from the Government and the International Cricket Council, as well as corporate partners, can only take the game so far. Johnston, who lost players such as Jeremy Bray and Andrew White when reality, post-World Cup, began to bite, has accepted a few home truths.

"I don't think we will ever get over the sort of teething problems we faced last summer,' the captain told Sportsmail from Abu Dhabi, where Ireland began their competitive year before travelling to Bangladesh, where they play three one-day internationals this week.

"We would have to go professional and full-time to have a settled side and that's quite some distance off. Even with a semi-professional level, there are issues there: do we contract a guy who is 34 or one who is 17 who we might lose any time to an English county?

"I am always hoping we will create a full-time cricket environment but it won't be around for my career. But I am worried about the next generation. The likes of Paul Stirling, who is 17 and has been playing for us out here, he already has a summer contract with Middlesex. I don't want to see these guys playing for counties, I want to see them playing for Ireland."

Talent has been rolling off the production line for years now, and Johnston has witnessed multiplying numbers taking up the game since you-know-what.

But unlike GAA players who consider the lure of Australia, young Irish cricketers can travel from home to a land of milk and honey in less than an hour. Even reserve-team players on the English county scene can earn about E40,000-50,000 a year. If they succeed, their thoughts then turn to the riches of representing England. Ed Joyce has done it and Eoin Morgan promises to be an even better player.

Two fundamental challenges face the rebranded Cricket Ireland. One is to create an environment where players feel able to say no to England and the other is to fertilise a culture of watching the game in Dublin and Belfast. The latter, getting bums on seats, would smooth the path to the former.

"There are major constraints to forming a professional squad, but our projection for 2008 is that we will spend 40-50 per cent of our entire budget on the senior men's team,' said Deutrom. 'We recognise that this is the driver of our business."

Deutrom has stabilised the finances after a perilous 2007 when promised bonus payments to the players were delayed for several months because of cashflow issues created by the visit of India and South Africa to the north. 'Managing success is not easy,' he reflects now.

A fairly lucrative deal with the England and Wales Cricket Board has seen him promise not to schedule any more such lucrative TV ventures, with England agreeing to visit us every two years in return. That means Deutrom can budget for a level of 'guaranteed income' and rely less on the volunteers who have hitherto carried the game.

"It's not a huge sum and it's not enough for players to give up their day jobs, but we are now in a position to compensate players for their time away from work when it is more than just a weekend we need them for, and we pay them match fees too," he said.

Gone are admirable servants such as former ICU secretary John Wright, recipient of a lifetime achievement award by the ICC, and Deutrom is recruiting two full-time employees - a teams administrator and a finance/membership manager - who will allow him to get on with wooing sponsors.

There is also a new board consisting of serious players in the business world whose input should strengthen cricket's hue in the national tapestry. But does the country care enough about a minority pursuit that was once the proud preserve of English aristocrats?

Has Ireland forgotten about that unlikely, eye-opening week when Ireland, driven by young men from Antrim, Dublin and Derry, as much as southern-hemisphere migrants, tied with Zimbabwe and beat the celebrated Pakistanis?

It's hard to say without commissing a survey, but on Grafton Street last week stood a young advertising enthusiast outside HMV in a batting helmet and bright green strip, advertising a DVD of a certain Caribbean odyssey.

How better to remind the masses that Irish sport's newest flag-bearers are still around. And that pre-season nets are already under way.