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‘Batmen’ to premiere on Setanta tonight

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‘Batmen’ tells the story of Irish cricket from the earliest origins of the game to the recent halcyon days when the national team has forged a reputation for swashbuckling cricket and the giant killing of cricketing superpowers.
On tranquil summer evenings across Ireland one will occasionally hear muffled voices, slow gentle applause and the occasional cry of “Out” drifting over high walls and through hedgerows. These sounds emanate from Ireland’s cricket clubs on hazy summer days and this documentary is an attempt to bring the television audience into this world, a world less rarefied and a lot more open that it may first appear.

In this one-off documentary ‘Batmen’ tells the story of cricket in Ireland from the earliest origins of the game in this country to the recent halcyon days when the national team has forged a reputation for swashbuckling cricket and the giant killing of cricketing superpowers.

It is a tale of a sometimes loved and often little understood sport in Ireland and the sport most impacted by the enormous political changes of the last 200 years. War, famine, revolution, emigration, immigration and economic boom and bust have all taken their toll on the fortunes of Irish cricket.

While ‘Batmen’ looks back on the highlights of Ireland’s cricketing history, it is very much rooted in the here and now. Behind the scenes footage with international and club teams is intercut with archive footage and stills and interviews with current and former cricketing greats, sports journalists, commentators and sports historians.

Over the course of the programme we see The Hills of Skerries win their first All-Ireland Senior club title, we spend time with one of Ireland’s most famous cricket families, the Mooneys; we travel to Dubai to see the senior men’s national team qualify for the 20/20 World Cup and we discover why much like rugby in Limerick, Cricket is the working man’s game in North County Dublin.

We also meet former Irish wicket keeper Ozzie Calhoun to hear the incredible story of how Ireland beat the West Indies in ‘69’ bowling them all out for 25. We discover the surprising passion the GAA’s founding father Michael Cusack had for the game; we examine how cricket successfully managed to straddle the community divide in Northern Ireland and we relive the glorious World Cup win over England in 2011.

Interviewees include John Mooney, Ed Joyce, Michael Halliday, Paul Rouse, Andrew White, Peter Gillespie and Ger Siggins. The programme is narrated by former Irish cricketer Alan Lewis.