News

Andrew Balbirnie is currently recovering from hip surgery and has not been able to play a part on the field for Ireland this summer, but he has had the chance to see cricket from a different perspective, from outside te ropes. After the KPC Group Series defeat to Sri Lanka earlier this month, Balbirnie wrote about his experience as a fan.
Andrew Balbirnie is currently recovering from hip surgery and has not been able to play a part on the field for Ireland this summer, but he has had the chance to see cricket from a different perspective, from outside te ropes. After the KPC Group Series defeat to Sri Lanka earlier this month, Balbirnie wrote about his experience as a fan.
They say you don’t miss something truly until it’s gone. I can’t stress that feeling enough after watching the lads go down 2-0 to the travelling Sri Lankans in Malahide last week.

Ever since my debut in 2010 I have wanted to play every game for Ireland and that has not changed. Obviously things happen, injury, form etc, but my passion for the game in Ireland, and what we are trying to do as a team is as strong as ever. The last week gave me a completely different perspective on cricket in Ireland and one that filled me with great pride.

I turned up early on the morning of both games via the Dart (Dublin Train) and seeing the amount of people getting off at Malahide station and making their way to the cricket ground was really something special.

Having played for the last couple of years this is a side of cricket in our country that I no longer see. A bus from the hotel on the morning of the game and a glimpse of the crowd around the ground is about as close as we get. Irish flags and Irish shirts were scattered all over the carriages with giddy kids eagerly anticipating watching their cricketing heroes mix it with the best.

I’ll always remember watching my first Ireland game in 2003, my dad took me out on the Dart to watch us play against South Africa in Clontarf CC in a friendly. I parked myself on a bench with one of my best mates, Paul Stirling, and we took turns in getting the pints of cordial and chocolate bars in as we dreamt of one day being on the other side of the ropes and wearing the green shirt.

It was a complete flashback seeing Paul crack one through the covers and all the kids around the ground in their replica shirts cheering and clapping while enjoying one of their heroes do what he does best. And that is why we play the game, OK we want to win and we want lots of runs and wickets but the biggest reason of all is to inspire the next generation of cordial drinking, chocolate eating youngsters.

It’s a well-known fact that the weather plays a huge role in Irish cricket, and waking up on Thursday morning to see the murky clouds hover over Dublin made me doubt that we would get any cricket in at all, and it would be like England in 2015 all over again. I was wrong, and as I made my way North of the Liffey with my coffee in hand trying to find out the result of the toss I overheard someone on my carriage say to his mate that “we’re bowling first”.

Now that put a big smile on my face. I was sitting on a train just north of Dublin city and a stranger in a cricket shirt was telling me that we had won the toss. Who needs Twitter???

I trudged up the Dublin road to the main gate of the cricket club watching my step as the footpaths were busy with Irish supporters and I found myself asking if there was another Irish team up the road playing in another sport before I saw them all trickle into the ground and take up their seats for the day. Win, lose or tie, we were doing something right.

Saturday was a completely different kettle of fish, the sun was out and the buzz was even greater. That of course may have been helped by the fact that we were playing the Belgians in the soccer and South Africa in the rugby, but who cares, there was green everywhere. Malahide was a picture.

The Sri Lankan fans turned up and brought as much colour as they did noise and it must have worked because boy did the Sri Lankan team show up. I spent most of my afternoon chatting to many of the different characters in the hospitality tent, making sure I got the important conversations in before lunch, as once the bar kicked in and the other sports took up the big screens they seemed somewhat preoccupied.

When playing the game it seems as if nothing else is happening, you’re so engulfed in wanting to perform and doing your best that nothing else matters, but to spend the day around the ground and see all that is happening makes you very proud of not just what we are doing as a team but as an organisation.

I’m truly excited about the coming years and hopefully continuing on the road that has been laid out for us. Looking back over the two days as a whole of course it’s a huge disappointment not to get that important win that would have set up nicely for the summer, but 1,500 fans packed into Malahide on a Saturday in June? I’ll have a Kit Kat please.

Yes
Connaught