...see the merit in pooling resources for mutual benefit.
This is a positive step forward and says much for the initiative of several prominent cricket journalists that they were able to hold an inaugural meeting at Stormont last Friday. The formation of the association was enthusiastically supported, albeit from a fledging membership scattered as far away as Pakistan, Barbados and Cork. But despite some challenging logistics, there were enough noble souls present to elect the effervescent Robin Walsh as first chairman and to fill the other offices. And no sooner had the new body been formed than it showed the spirit of its intent with a presentation to Kyle McCallan to mark his 200th cap for Ireland.
If Cricket World Cup 2007 showed us anything, it showed that when the sporting stakes are high then cricket gets as much coverage as any other sport. Tales of major Irish sporting celebrities organizing their plans around Ireland cricket matches, politicians doing likewise, and events all over the island fitting around what was happening in the Caribbean, tells us the scribes and television crews following Ireland did a great job.
OK so there were a few ‘blow-ins’ but when you get to the higher echelons of media coverage you take every ounce of support that comes your way. There’s no such thing as bad publicity, and there’s no bad journalists, we just have some with different opinions!
The Cricket Writers of Ireland will make a major contribution to the development of our cricket given the status the Irish game now holds on the international stage. Performances on the field have gotten us there, but there’s a lot of infrastructure to be added to make our sport a genuine competitor with the test playing nations. Much of that will focus on the Cricket Ireland administrative set-up, but a close alignment with the Cricket Writers of Ireland will also play an important part in that evolvement. It is a logical step given the huge media entourage that follows the test nations all over the world. The Cricket Writers of Ireland may have a more modest presence in these embryonic years, but everything has to start somewhere, and for the Irish cricket media it all started last Friday.
Membership will quickly soar given that the association will include top photographers like Rowland White, and television and media cricket stalwarts like Ritchie Kelly at Radio Foyle, plus Michael McNamee and Brian Johnston at Radio Ulster. Locally the major cricket writers in recent times have been Ian Callender, Bob Fenton and Alistair Bushe, and they will feature prominently alongside theirDublincounterpartsmarshalled by the inimitable Ger Siggins. And there’s plenty of space for cricket website journalists like Barry Chambers, John Elder, Lawrence Moore, and Peter Shields, and hopefully the feisty Paul Stafford.
Cricket writers, like all journalists, are a mixed bag, and it would be fair to say over the years some have not always been favourites with the players. In many instances this was because they felt they were doing their job independent of bias, while most players liked the good things written about them, but not the bad things! We’ve all been guilty of mistakes over the years, and for what it’s worth, most journalists mature with age and experience. Looking back we all have ourfavourites, much like umpires, and once we got to know them, we found they were just as enthusiastic about the game as any of us. Carl Anderson and the late Bill Ireland were very popular, both gentlemen in their profession. I confess I always enjoyed the company of Belfast Telegraph’s Robert Fenton as his memory was tremendous and he was such a true professional. Bob covered his cricket very efficiently as required by the paper, but when you got him onto his real sporting passion of greyhound racing then you got a deeper inside to his vast knowledge. Great character, with some colourful stories about betting scams. Although Ian Callender is a much different personality, I doubt if there’s a better cricket journalist in the UK for dedication, detail and commitment. Ian has made a huge contribution to local and international cricket in the past 20 years, and for me is the doyen of cricket writers in Ireland. Superb journalist not afraid to cover any story, but unscrupulously fair.
Finally, there could not be a better choice to launch the ship than Chairman Walsh, a seasoned professional with a vast amount of experience in cricket administration, newspapers, radio and television. Robin’s enthusiasm and drive will set the new association off on the right path.
Good luck to everyone involved.
Clarence Hiles
Editor
