Even if Ireland don't reach the quarter finals of the 2015 Cricket World Cup I think the team have already shown they deserve to be on the world stage.
Phil Simmons side dramatically beat Zimbabwe by five runs to register their third win from four games and it was also their second victory over a Test-playing nation in this tournament.
It all means Ireland need one win from their final two Pool B games against India and Pakistan next week to advance to the last eight.
However as things stand this could be a last World Cup for some of these Irish players because the ICC has decided to reduce the 2019 tournament to 10 teams.
Ireland played at the World Cup in 2007 and since then have beaten the likes of Pakistan, England and West Indies and they always entertain us even if not everyone in this country is a cricket fan.
Who could forget Kevin O’Brien's century in the win over England in 2011 which was voted the second-greatest World Cup moment of all time:
The so called " Associates " in this World Cup are Ireland, Scotland, Afghanistan and the UAE and all four have been involved in some of the most entertaining matches over the last few weeks.
It seems a strange decision from the ICC to exclude them in four years time but hopefully common sense will prevail.
It certainly helps when the likes of India's legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar is asking for 25 teams to be played at the 2019 World Cup.
Not sure if 25 teams is realistic but surely the ICC is meant to be encouraging the development of the game outside of its traditional Test playing nations.
