Campher emerges as new Irish hero

IRISH cricket found a new star in the Rose Bowl on Thursday. The one bright spot in a disappointing ODI performance against England was Curtis Campher, who made a halfcentury while also taking a wicket on his senior debut. It underlined the potential of the former South Africa under-age international. Campher met journalists over Zoom yesterday morning, still in a daze over how well he performed in his first time in the green shirt. The 21-year-old explained the circumstances that saw him declare for the country of his grandmother. Helen

McDevitt was a nurse who left Derry for South Africa in 1946. She died before Campher was born, but was able to bestow on him an Irish passport, which he obtained in his youth. In 2016, Ireland were on tour in South Africa when they came to Campher’s school for a bowling exhibition. ‘I trained with them then, bowled a few balls but never thought much else about it.’ Two years later, Ireland were back, preparing for the world cup qualifiers. Campher, then 19, was part of a local side who met them in a friendly. He played well, taking the wicket of Andy Balbirnie and hitting 49. During his time at the crease, he whispered to Niall O’Brien, who was the wicketkeeper, that he had an Irish passport. The rest is history. Given he played with South Africa all the way up, there has been the occasional negative comment on social media about his switch, but Campher insists that most of the feedback from home has been positive. ‘I am getting a lot of messages and support from family and friends, and my old coaches. I think there might be some negative stuff out there but I haven’t looked at that.’ Campher says that he wants to model his Ireland career on Kevin O’Brien, having partnered with the veteran for a time on Thursday. ‘Kevin was amazing, he just calmed me down completely,’ Campher said. If I could have half the career with Ireland that Kev has had, I would be happy. I will be modelling my career on him.’ Barry McCarthy is a doubt for Ireland in the second ODI today after going off with a knee injury.