Up and down and back again?

BATSMAN Eoin Morgan was dropped from the English Test side today.
You can't really argue with the decision. In six Test innings in the United Arab Emirates Morgan made a grand total of 82 runs at 13.67 - useful runs from a number 10, not so good from your number 6. His poor form then continued into the One-Day and Twenty20 internationals, meaning that his time in the whites and England Three Lions cap were over for now.
It's all bad news for Morgan; as this article says, he is a major part of England's limited overs teams, including for the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka later this year. That's after he plays Indian Premier League for Kolkatta.
This is undoubtedly in the best interests of both Morgan and the England cricket team. But is it in the best interests of cricket as a whole?
You see, Morgan isn't English. A born-and-bred Dubliner, Morgan made his first-class debut for Ireland back in 2004 and his ODI debut for Ireland in 2006 (both matches coincidentally against Scotland). After rising up through the ranks of English county side Middlesex, Morgan was eventually made his England debut in a ODI match against the West Indies in 2009, oddly enough a mere month-and-a-half after he played his last one for Ireland (where he scored a match-winning 84* against Canada). His Twenty20 debut came for England against the Netherlands in 2009 after his English ODI debut.
Ireland play ODI and Twenty20 international cricket. They're very good and getting better, currently ranked 11th in ODI cricket and 9th in Twenty20 cricket, ahead of Test nations Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. That's not bad for a country that only made its ODI debut in 2006 and that is looking to gain Test status by 2020.
What will help Ireland - and other "minnow" teams - succeed is playing their best XI all the time. That shouldn't be to the detriment of those who want to play Test cricket, but rather working with them. What needs to happen is a system whereby once a player declares his limited-overs allegiance to a team, he stays playing for them for his career. If a player then finds himself good enough to be picked for a Test team, that's fantastic. They can go on and play cricket at the highest level, but still play for their Associate or Affiliate side, sharing their experiences with local players.
Perhaps the best example of this was Australian fast bowler Dirk Nannes. Having given up hope of Australian selection he decided to make use of a Dutch passport, playing in The Netherlands' shock win over England in 2009. This seemingly spurred the Australian selectors into action, picking him for a grand total of one ODI and 15 Twenty20's. Given the depth at Australia's disposal, wouldn't that skill have been better used with the lower-ranked team he began with?
For now though, Morgan will still play his all international cricket for England. As Ed Smith wrote, this is the first time he's really had to come back from adversity. If nothing else, this should be interesting to watch.
But wouldn't the story be that much richer if the comeback came dressed in green?