The Ashes Series has been captivating cricket and with the last test and the ODIs now on the radar, this will be an entertaining prelude to the ODIs World Cup. Cricket Ireland will be in the thick of the action in India from February and with television coverage beamed all over the world it promises to be another wonderful experience for the national team. Irish cricket has come a long way in the past decade, and the squad’s performances in the Caribbean in 2007 showed we can compete at the highest level, and on our day lower the colours of more experienced opponents. Adi Birrell was in charge then, but the reins have since been taken over by Phil Simmons and the big Trinidadian has done a marvellous job at the helm. Now is the time to deliver, and with the massive experience gained in recent times, have we the right to expect even greater performances than in 2007?
Only time will tell.
This year also marks major milestones for the Northern Cricket Union and Lisburn Cricket Club. The NCU will celebrate 125 years of competitive cricket since the union was formed in 1886, while Lisburn will celebrate 175 years in existence as the oldest cricket club still in operation in Ulster. Both are terrific milestones and hopefully the administrators in charge will soon announce their itinerary. After all, both have had plenty of time to plan it!
England will return to Ireland in late August in what should be a bumper gate for the Cricket Ireland coffers. The mother country is enjoying a renaissance and if they sustain their form in Australia and then in the World Cup, they will be a huge draw in Dublin. The Irish players felt short-changed on the last England visit to Stormont, and they will never have a greater opportunity to set the record straight. Let’s hope the weather is kind.
In between the adventurous Grasshoppers Cricket Club with make another trip across the Atlantic to tour Antigua and Barbados. The nomadic club is thirty years young, and it has done a terrific job in promoting Irish cricket all over the world. Under the guidance of the experienced Alan Waite and Neil Russell this tour promises to be just as exciting as all those that have gone before. The tour starts in Antigua in late March and then moves to Barbados a week later. For those young players on their first overseas tour it will be the trip of a lifetime, and for those venturing off again it will be another nostalgic journey down memory lane. Time will not age them!
On the club front it would be difficult to look outside the strong squads at North Down and Waringstown in the NCU, while up the M2 things are changing and the list of potential champions has grown in recent times as the great Donemana and Limavady have started to wane. The issue of players moving for money still seems to enguph many people in the close season, but it is now such an integral part of the game we should move on and concentrate on the more positive items. A northern club winning the Irish Senior Cup would be high on the wish-list as the bragging rights have been rooted in Leinster for nearly a decade.
The top clubs have started to prepare for the 2011 season already, so well done to the Woodvale club members for creating an indoor tournament at the Shankill Leisure Centre in January to shake off the winter cobwebs. No doubt it will start off very casually and very friendly, but in true Ulster sporting tradition, everybody will want to win. Good luck to all the participating clubs.
Predictions come and go in local cricket so let’s look at the bigger picture in 2011 and concentrate on enjoying the game and respecting everyone who contributes to that enjoyment. We have a wonderful year ahead so best wishes to everyone everywhere.
Clarence Hiles
Editor
