We have beaten them before so let’s go and shock England again
THERE aren’t too many more milestones to achieve for Irish cricket, but next Sunday will be a big one. And we’re all excited by the prospect of creating a slice of history by being the first Irish team to play England at the home of cricket.
The Lord’s showdown will be the biggest match of our summer for that reason but the two ODIs this week are also important for the team and for Cricket Ireland as an organisation, as it is an opportunity to show people that we are still around and can still compete against the big boys.
These two ODIs, the first is in Bristol on Friday, will be the start of what should be an exciting summer for Irish cricket. We come home from Lord’s to compete in a trinations series in Dublin, against New Zealand and Bangladesh. It’s not often that we get to see six top-class matches in this country, but that is exactly what is taking place in Malahide in the middle of May.
And then of course, there will be another historic moment when on June 22, the International Cricket Council meet and decide whether to give ourselves and Afghanistan full test status. That will be a genuinely seismic development for the sport in Ireland, and the repercussions will drip down to club players. Cricket can become the third most popular international sport (after soccer and rugby) if we do get test status.
We want to add fuel to the ever-increasing fire that suggests we should be accorded full status by taking a scalp or two in the coming weeks. Admittedly, our form has not been great over the past five or six months.
We are playing well for 70 or 80 percent of our matches, but in that period of time when things aren’t going well, we are conceding big scores. We have been conceding 50 or 60 runs off six or seven overs or losing three or four wickets. We have to cut that out and focus for the entirety of the match, for all 100 overs.
Maybe teams have figured us out a little bit but there is still plenty of talent in the team, and three or four very good young guys have established themselves in the team over the past year. They just need time to find their feet in international cricket.
When I made my Ireland debut all those years ago, it was against an English county team. These players are making their debut against some of the best sides in the world.
England are one of the top teams in the world, but we have beaten them before, so that will give us confidence. Of course, any time we meet them, my century in Bangalore back in 2011 is brought up. It is nice to have those sort of memories to fall back on, and it gives me confidence that I can play well against them again – even if there aren’t too many of those English guys still around.
But most of our guys have played county cricket in England – and have played well against them at that level. So there is no reason why they can’t do so again, even at Lord’s. We did play at the venue a couple of times in the 2009 World Twenty, but it is nice to be invited there by the ECB.
Hopefully, a lot of the Irish that live in London will pop down to Lord’s for the Sunday afternoon, to join those that are flying in and create a raucous atmosphere. It will be nice to arrive there, having already taken their scalp in Bristol this Friday.