Ireland’s cricket team travelled to England for three One Day International matches over the summer. This was the two teams’ first series as part of the 2023 world cup qualifying league. World champions England won the series 2-1, but it was a very important moment for Ireland.

From a performance perspective, Ireland’s match victory marks just the second time it has beaten England – and provides a valuable 10 points in the qualifying league. 

Taking a broader perspective, it helps to galvanise cricket as a growth sport in Ireland – a development that comes with great symbolic significance.

The series

England selected, what has been dubbed as, a “B team.” Due to the pandemic England’s Test squad must be kept separate from the ODI squad, leaving it without six of its World Cup winning players. Its team did, however feature, the world’s best ODI opening partnership of Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow, alongside Irish captain Eoin Morgan and vice captain Moeen Ali. 

Ireland was also unable to field a full-strength team. Key bowler Boyd Rankin missed the entire series through injury; Mark Adair missed the first two matches through injury and was unable to bowl his full quota in the third match; and Barry McCarthy was injured inside his first over of the first game. Ireland also made the conscious decision to play young players in the hope that, should they not qualify automatically, they will be ready for the play-off stages. 

The visiting team badly struggled in the first two matches, with experienced batsmen failing to make any significant runs. Young South African-born Curtis Campher, recently qualified for Ireland through a grandmother from Sligo, was the stand-out for Ireland in the first two matches, ensuring the team managed to avoid an embarrassing runs total. He also performed admirably with the ball chipping in with a few wickets.

The third game was a different story. Ireland bowled first and England posted a strong 328 runs, with Eoin Morgan scoring 106. Ireland chased the total down with one ball to spare. Belfast High alum Paul Stirling scored 142 off just 128 deliveries, and Andy Balbirnie also managed a quick century to leave Ireland in a fantastic position to win. Ireland was seen home by veteran Kevin O’Brien and 20-year-old Harry Tector for a historic victory. 

The win marked Ireland’s first since a World Cup match in 2011, with some added poignancy: played just a day before the funeral of John Hume, both sets of players wore black armbands out of respect. A fitting tribute to a peace maker –and cricket fan. 

The symbolism

This brings us nicely to the experience of cricket in Ireland, a sport that continues to grow. When Ireland qualified for the cricket world cup in 2007 there were around 14,500 people playing cricket on the island. That number rose to 50,000 by 2019. 

Some of this growth is due to immigration from cricket-loving countries such as India. Indeed, Indian-born Simi Singh is now a regular in Ireland’s squads. However, much is also due to Cricket Ireland’s conscious attempts to grow the game. Cricket Ireland’s annual report of 2018 reveals that it visited 276 schools, delivered 2,411 sessions and engaged 21,200 children, of whom nearly half were girls. 

Despite its growth, it remains a long way off where the sport once was. In fact, cricket was once the most popular sport in Ireland. It suffered decline due to the emergence of the GAA and its initial derision of the sport as a “garrison game”played by traitors. The historic lack of a governing body for cricket didn’t help as football and rugby were able to prove resilient in the face of such accusations. 

There does still seem to be a cultural divide in cricket. Currently the Interpro competition is made up of three teams playing games with ‘first class’ status. Of those three teams two are based in Northern Ireland, but it is part of the long-term strategy for Munster and Connaught to eventually field a side once the game has grown sufficiently at club level.

Despite Northern Ireland having the most Interpro teams, Northern Irish players do not dominate the Irish squad. New captain Andrew Balbirnie is keen to select younger players as part of a strategy to develop a team capable of competing at the 2023 ODI world cup. Of the 22 players selected for the training squad for the recent games with England, 10 of them come from Northern Ireland, while the majority of the others are from, or are based in, Dublin. 

It is also important to note that Leinster Lightning have won every Interpro competition so far, showing the quality of cricketers coming out of Dublin. In terms of the 11 playing the matches, only four have been from Northern Ireland.

Growing and reimagining cricket

Cricket is growing, but there still appears to be a divide within Northern Ireland. The Northern Cricket Union provides a list of currently active clubs. Most of these clubs are based in traditionally Protestant-majority areas, and it’s fair to say that cricket is still generally seen as a “British” sport.

However, sport has the potential to break down barriers. Indeed, evidence of a community divide in cricket is not as obvious with clubs in the North West. It is also worth looking at recent developments in GAA, a sport generally seen as an “Irish” sport. In a sign of changing times, however, there is now a GAA club in East Belfast which is attracting members from across the traditional divide. Linda Ervine, sister-in-law of the late PUP leader, has been made President of the club. This is in a constituency where the last census showed that just 12% of residents identified as Catholic and just 9% as Irish. The new East Belfast team is truly breaking new ground for the GAA.

Perhaps Northern Ireland is coming to a stage where sport can become apolitical, and participation can be based on genuine interest and love for the sport. Sporting bodies representing sports that have traditionally seen as representing one community are reaching out and growing, it can perhaps be an exciting time for sport in general in Northern Ireland.

It is unclear when Ireland will play their next international cricket matches. The men’s team had qualified for the T20 world cup which was due to be played in Australia in October and November, but has since been postponed. All of Ireland’s home internationals have been cancelled for this year, but local cricket has received confirmation that it may resume. 

The pandemic has upended many sporting fixtures. It’s important not to lose sight of the other ways – the more positive ways – in which age-old certainties can be challenged and reimagined.

If you want to see highlights of Ireland’ victory you can watch them on the ECB channel here.

Or for extended highlights of Ireland’s thrilling run chase you can watch here.