WOW. That didn�t take long did it? Sixteen months ago the Irish cricketers were bombarded with well-wishes from presidents, taoisigh and ministers galore. Cricket was the new soccer and politicians would not be ungenerous when it came to helping the game grow even faster. So, how exactly did the government keep this promise?

Last week Martin Cullen, TD, Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism announced allocations of �50m to 682 separate sports projects under the Sports Capital Programme. So, how did the sport that provided such national joy in 2007 fare? How did the state recognise the efforts of the RTE team of the year? How exactly did they fulfill those extravagant pre-election promises. Well, Civil Service CC, the thriving and progressive junior club in the Phoenix Park got EUR6,500. And� well that�s it.

�Thanks Trent, Boyd and Niall, we really enjoyed having our pictures taken with you. Here�s 0.013% of our sports funding for next year.� Even allowing for the numbers playing the game, cricket gets less than a quarter of what it is entitled to per capita. And that for a game that is delivering at all levels of international competition (congratulations to Phil Simmons� charges on their third successive European Championship) and also on a community basis as the most welcoming sport to the New Irish.

The allocations were sent to the media last week with a full list of recipients. Hidden in the excel document was a list of those unlucky clubs that applied for grants, which included Avondale (perhaps not as well-connected politically as they used to be!), St Johnston, The Hills, Railway Union, Leinster, Halverstown and Co Laois.

So, what can cricketers do? Well the programme is part-funded by the National Lottery, so perhaps if individuals boycotted that form of taxation it would be a start. And should we qualify for the Twenty20 World Cup on Tuesday, Mr Cullen should be told he is not required to spew out his congratulations. And his tickets for Lord�s raffled off.