Global Game
Tim Wigmore looks at what the series against England this weekend could mean for Ireland
Playing away to England is nothing new for Irish cricketers. Ed Joyce first played an international in England fully 20 years ago, in 1997. Then he played for Ireland against the England and Wales Cricket Board XI, a ragtag bunch of amateur cricketers assembled to play – and beat, as it turned out – the Irish international team. Now Joyce and his teammates have two fully-fledged ODIs in England – “a dream come true,” as he says.
It is reward for everything done to transform Irish cricket in the last two decades. In the late 1990s, Mike Hendrick introduced Ireland to professional standards in an amateur age – and helped Joyce become the first Irishman to build a genuine career in county cricket for 50 years, paving the way for counties to scout across the Irish Sea. The South African Adi Birrell led Ireland to their first World Cup, in 2007, and empowered a fine generation of young players. Over eight years from 2007, Phil Simmons then established Ireland as masters of all they surveyed at Associate level; they won 98 of 111 completed internationals against Associates in this time, and won the Associate treble – the WT20 qualifiers, the World Cricket League Championship and the Intercontinental Cup – in 2013.
Brilliant grassroots coaches like Brían O’Rourke helped to nurture Ireland’s home-grown cricketing talent – including Eoin Morgan, it should not be forgotten – and popularise the sport, smashing its image as being a bastion of Anglophile elites. Warren Deutrom, who has been chief executive since 2006, could claim to have done more good for the game of cricket than any other administrator this century.
Then there are the players. Joyce averaged 99.75 in the qualifiers for the 2007 World Cup, even though he would soon be playing for England. The class of 2007, who toppled Pakistan and then thumped Bangladesh, lacked Joyce, but combined a young home-grown core with the nous and tenacity of naturalised Irishmen like Trent Johnston. This generation kept on achieving, even as the sport’s rulers tried to shut them out of the club. Since 2007, Ireland have defeated five Test nations in the World Cup – more than England have done in that time. Across the two squads for the ODI series, there are more homegrown players from Ireland than England.
So the two ODIs will be occasions to savour. “Walking out to bat at the home of cricket, against England, as an Irish cricketer is about as exciting as it gets,” Joyce says, with endearingly childish enthusiasm for a grizzled 38-year-old.
Lord’s is almost a sell-out, and most of those will be backing green. Let’s hope they are treated to a performance in keeping with Ireland’s journey over the past two decades rather than their fairly turbulent past two years.