Ireland And A Cricket Match Made In Heaven

I didn't see much of the cricket the other night. Presumably you know what I mean when I talk about the cricket and the other night.

I didn't watch it for a number of reasons:

1. I happen to live with the Corko-Scottish Anti-Cricket Alliance who vetoed the game in favour of forcing me to sit through an episode of "Embarrassing Bodies" which involved a guy with a leaky willy and some woman who appeared to have drank far too much cider over the years getting crowns on her teeth a la Matt Dillon in There's Something About Mary. I'm not sure which freaked me out more.
2. After England's performances throughout the Ashes and the draw against India (generally accepted prior to the Ireland game as the best game of one day cricket ever), I thought there may have been some embarrassing bodies on the Irish team by the end.
3. Like any other sporting event I am even remotely interested in, it was on too late in Australia and I had to go to bed- the bastards. Whenever anyone goes back they always say one of the best things is to be able to watch sports "at a reasonable hour" which I always find odd because I never hear anyone under 60 talk about the reasonable hour. Nothing it seems ages the bronzed pissed up Irishman in Australia like getting up at 4 o'clock on a Tuesday the morning to watch Man U vs. Wigan.

Luckily I did catch one over. Kevin Pieterson was at the crease and looking like he was going to make the Ireland team go the way of it's economy.

KP is that kind of a player. He's just ruthless. The more vulnerable a bowler or no matter how far ahead England may be, Pieterson just preys on such opportunism and takes real pleasure out of putting a struggling opposition firmly in its place just as he did with his double century against a bumbling Australia in Adelaide during the Ashes.

You could sense that Pieterson was gearing himself up for a similar innings here. Arguably the most charismatic batsman of his generation, KP just steps into the ball and smashes it mercilessly towards the boundaries.

KP was 59 not out when I tuned in and up stepped this fat, balding, little Irish guy (no, I'm not talking about myself in the third person) to take him on. I'd obviously never heard of him, he was an Irish cricketer for God's sake and he looked like one of those guys I used to mark when I'd get thrown in at corner-forward in the West Junior B Junior Hurling League back home.

Cricket is an unforgiving sport. Whether batting or bowling, there is nowhere to hide. If you don't bowl to a world class standard against a player like Pieterson on a roll, you could well be smashed on live television in front of many millions of people.

I'm not sure how the Irishman felt about it but I can tell you this would be quite a terrifying experience for most Junior B Hurlers, let alone one just about holding his own at corner back.

Now maybe KP got complacent (he has a tendency to do) but I suspect it was actually down to some world class spin. Our man bowled a slow one at Kev without causing him any problems. KP would wait his chance.

It was a glorious wicket, KP's always is but this was even better. Kev tried to just flick the ball behind him for four, edged it and the wicketkeeper said thanks very much. Bang! Or ah, as the BBC put it "slightly off balance as he attempted a reverse sweep to off-spinner Sitrling, he simply dabbed the ball into the air, gifting wicketkeeper Niall O'Brien the simplest of catches...." Bang! (I'll never make a cricket reporter anyway, that's for sure).

Then it was back to Embarrassing Bodies, off to bed and I presumed that KP getting out would be as good as it got. It continued to look that way too with Ireland chasing 327 and being 5 for 111 at one point. It did not bode well until amazingly, what happened next, actually happened.

Would it be the equivalent of a Liverpool team containing Djimi Traore and Vladmir Smicer being 3-0 down against Milan in Istanbul? Is it the same as a lethargic Offaly team 6 points down with 5 minutes to go against a relentless Limerick in the 1994 All-Ireland final?

Because just then a previously unknown (now over-night sensation) Kevin O'Brien hit the fastest ever century in the history of World Cup cricket. He hit his second fifty in fewer balls than the first one. Ireland eventually completing the biggest run chase in One day history to win by three wickets. It turns out O'Brien is Steven Gerrard after all, and Johnny Dooley all rolled into one. Hell, he's even Jim Troy and Jerzy Dudek. Fuck it, just plain old Roy of the Rovers. Bang!

It's difficult to distill the greatness of the game of cricket. I think what me interested initially was the passion followers of the game have for it.

It started when I visited India and everywhere I went kids were just happily playing cricket on the streets day and night. It reminded me of home before everyone got swept away by all this Celtic Tiger bullshit and bought 4x4's when we used to play hurling and soccer all the time. It never occurred to us that there was anything else you could be doing.

It was the same when I came to Australia, people loved cricket in the same way I loved hurling. Not because it was popular but it meant something, like the bat (as personal to a cricketer as a hurley to the hurler) was an extension of your arm and so the game was part of who you were.

It was full of great stories and it's heroes like Ring and Mackey were spoken of with mythical reverence in the folklore of the game. Warnie's ball of the century, Muralitheran, downing 55 cans of XXXX on the plane to England, the underarm ball, Brian Lara, Viv Richards, The Master, Ricky Ponting and yes, Warne again.

Even the Irish team had the good sense to celebrate their victory against England like a team of nobodies who'd just pulled off the the heist of the century and went on the beer until seven o'clock the next morning. Ireland's been losing it's sense of fun of late and it was heartening that these guys know to celebrate the big days and live in the moment. A bit like Jackie's Army way back when.

They've got India next. The equivalent of playing AC Milan with Ciaran Carey and Davey Clarke on board. Cricket and Ireland have never really gone together but it is a game of high drama, no little skill and like any good sport it enriches the lives of those who play.

This week the Irish Cricket team and Kevin O'Brien in particular turned everyone's perceptions on its head of Cricket, favouritism and our expectations of just what it is we can achieve.

Carpe Diem and never give up.