Ireland braced for calypso in Clontarf

THERE’s definitely something about the visit of the Caribbean cricketers to stir the blood of a cricket lover. Perhaps it is the memories of watching free-hitting batsmen like Viv Richards, Chris Gayle and Brian Lara, or fearsome pace bowlers such as Michael Holding, Malcolm Marshall and Andy Roberts.

Or perhaps it’s the way the phrase ‘West Indies’ conjures up images of glorious beaches, blue skies and hot sun. A visit of the islands’ cricketers certainly seems to have a magical impact on Irish weather. The Windies have played here on ten occasions since 1970, and four of those visits took place in seasons ranked in the ten best summers by the Poulter Index, including the scorchers of 1976, 1984 and 1995.

Those summers coincided with the great days of the Windies, so Irish fans got to see the likes of Richards, Gordon Greenidge and Ian Bishop up close as the sun beat down on Dublin. The tourists have certainly sent the weather ahead of them this year, and patrons at Clontarf this week would be advised to pack plenty of sunblock for the three ODIs on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

Ireland’s vice-captain Lorcan Tucker is itching for the action to start, not least because these are the first of just eight games the senior men will play this summer.

‘It’s a little bit disappointing that the European T20 Premier League has been postponed, but that’s out of the players’ control. We’ve got six games against West Indies and two more against England in September, so we’ll make do with what we’ve got,’ said Tucker.

It’s an interesting-looking Windies side, with just four survivors – Shai Hope, Justin Greaves, Roston Chase and Alzarri Joseph – from the 2-1 Ireland series win in Jamaica in January 2022. By contrast, Ireland have nine players who played in that, plus Andrew Balbirnie and Tucker himself who missed out because they had failed a Covid-19 test.

‘Yeah, almost everyone came down with it on that trip to Florida and Jamaica; Balbo and myself were probably the last to get it. I had a few days in bed and a week in the hotel room, so missed a brilliant win.’

One man with plenty of Irish experience against the Windies is Kevin O’Brien, but he will be in the opposition’s tent in Castle Avenue this week as their temporary coach.

‘It’ll be pretty cool to see him around,’ says Tucker, ‘let’s hope he hasn’t seen too much of us recently but it’s great that he’s working with a team like that.’

The wicketkeeper-batsman has been watching a lot of the Caribbean Premier League and says there are a lot of excellent young players in a squad with some unfamiliar names.

‘Shai Hope is obviously their number one, but Gudakesh Motie is an exciting spinner and could be quite a threat. There’s a lot of young faces but they always have attacking batsmen – as do we – and I think supporters can expect to see high scoring and plenty of sixes hit in Castle Avenue.’

It will be interesting to see 18-year-old Jewel Andrew, who has yet to bat at international level, while Amir Jangoo smashed a century off 79 balls on his ODI debut in Bangladesh in December.

Tucker goes into the series with a century already under his belt in the interprovincials. The competition has been often criticised as providing poor practice for the top level, but Tucker disagrees.

‘They’ve been great this week, very competitive and played on really good pitches. I suppose that’s a lot to do with the weather but their quality has been
excellent and that has helped the standard of cricket. Lots of guys have got big scores, which is what you want.’

Squad members Harry Tector, Cade Carmichael, George Dockrell, Balbirnie and Tucker himself have all made centuries in an unprecedented glut of run-scoring in the IP50s. There is less to cheer in the bowling department, which is missing Mark Adair and saw Craig Young limp off clutching his thigh on Thursday.

There are call-ups for three uncapped players, seamers Tom Mayes and Liam McCarthy and batsman Carmichael. There has been much comment that all three were born and learned their sport in South Africa. Is that something that concerns Tucker?

‘Not at all. These guys have made a big commitment to cricket in Ireland, uprooting their lives and careers to come here, and we are the better for it,’ he says. ‘They have lived here for several years and have performed in the interpros and for the Wolves, so they are entitled to play.’

Tucker is confident of Ireland’s chances in the three ODIs this week, and three T20s in June: ‘We’ve good recent experience of them, and the confidence from having beaten them most recently on their own patch. Hopefully we can play well and take them down.’

Four times Ireland blew away the Windies

IRELAND have played West Indies 39 times since 1928, with a record of 3-11 in ODIs, 3-3 in T20is, and 3-6 in other formats. The four greatest wins were:

1928 (College Park) On their first visit, teenage student George McVeagh (102 at No8) helped set the Windies 350 to win a 3-dayer. Tom Dixon (4-76) led Ireland to victory.
1969 (Sion Mills) On a damp pitch in Co Tyrone, Alec O’Riordan (4-18) and Dougie Goodwin (5-6) bowled the Windies out for 25. 
2015 (Nelson) ODI World Cup – Chasing 304, Paul Stirling (92), Ed Joyce (84) and Niall O’Brien (79no) saw Ireland win with four overs to spare.
2022 (Hobart) T20 World Cup – Windies made 146, which Ireland passed losing just one wicket.