IRELAND’S women cricketers missed on the World Cup which started in India and Sri Lanka this week. But one former international will be there, and at the heart of matters for the favourites for the trophy.

Australia play Sri Lanka today in Colombo and have already got one win under the belts. Kim Garth didn’t take any wickets but her 38 runs alongside centurion Ashleigh Gardner gave the Aussie innings a boost and put them out of sight in New Zealand.

Garth first played for Ireland aged 14 and won 114 caps over the next nine years before she emigrated to Australia in search of opportunities and maybe a career in the sport she loved. Back home contracts for women players were still some years off and the chances of making a living out of the game were next to nil. ‘We train at 6.30am or 9pm,’ Garth told me in an interview in 2016.

She grew up in Blackrock, Co Dublin with an impeccable pedigree. Uniquely in Irish sport both her parents are full internationals, Jonathan winning 26 caps from 1986-89 and Anne-Marie McDonald 12 caps in 1988-89, making her debut at the World Cup in Australia. Kim’s brothers Robbie and JJ both had long senior careers, with Jonathan junior winning Ireland A caps.

She had been to Australia on the Big Bash Associate rookie program in 2015-16, and spent some winters down under in Melbourne Premier Cricket before she decided to make her life down under. She won her first contract with Victoria in early 2020, just as the world was first hearing the phrase ‘Covid 19’.

In a recent interview with cricket.com.au, the Australian board website, her mother Anne-Marie said ‘When that Big Bash rookie program and the whole thing started, I knew it was the country for her. She’s so sporty. I said, “This is the beginning of the end – I know it is”. And it was.’

It was two-and-a-half years before the Garth family met up again, and her parents were in Mumbai when Kim made her T20 debut in canary yellow in December 2022.

She has been an infrequent member of the Australian 20-over side, but a regular on the ODI team and has worn the fabled baggy green cap in four Test matches, which are as rare as hen’s teeth for women. (Ireland have played just one – before Kim’s time – back in 2000.)

The World Cup arrives with Garth in her absolute prime as a pace bowler. She is ranked fourth best in the world, with only one seamer placed ahead of her, team-mate Megan Schutt. She has been the world’s most economical fast bowler since her Australia debut in January 2023 – her overs costing a mere 3.58 runs.

Aussies vice-captain Tahlia McGrath says Garth is ‘a nightmare to face’.

Former captain Alyssa Healy thinks she’s getting even better. ‘She’s worked on some stuff to make it more challenging to face her, which, from personal experience, it’s hard enough as it is. So to challenge both sides of the bat, it’s going to be a really exciting thing to see from her.’

Garth works very hard at her game, and is on top of the technical tweaks needed to make her a better bowler, less reliant on her natural outswing.

She has been working with Australia pace-bowling coach Scott Prestwidge, trying out different seam positions seeking what she calls ‘the ultimate goal’, the inswinger.
To this end, Garth has been studying England’s Jimmy Anderson – ‘it’s a bit old school, but I love watching videos of all different bowlers’ –  and hopes to unveil the delivery soon.

‘I’m trying to be a bit more subtle with it,’ she says. ‘To be fair, I haven’t quite cracked it yet. I’m hoping it’ll come this summer.’

In that cricket.com.au interview, Garth recounted a recent visit to her home club in Pembroke.

‘The long weekend in May is always a really nice weekend in Ireland,’ she says. ‘My little brother was playing in the first team, and so I went down there, and the sun was shining, and pretty much everyone that I grew up playing with was down there.

‘It has a real community feel to it, club cricket back home. It’s very social. All those guys you grew up playing cricket with, and girls you played women’s cricket with – just having them down at the club … yeah, when I left, I was like, “I really miss that”.’

Her mother is delighted to be part of the first mother/daughter combo to play in a Women’s World Cup but she misses having her only daughter living on the other side of the world.

‘It’s horrendous,’ she says. ‘I am so proud of her, but it is extremely difficult, I have to say. I really miss her.

‘It’s hard, but when I see her on the international stage, playing for the best team in the world, I can suck it up a bit.’

Healy has no doubts about Garth’s place in that team – ‘For her to come into an environment and really dive into all that, it makes a real difference. And she’s just a really enjoyable person to be around, which enables that good culture to thrive.

‘I think the sky’s the limit for her. Hopefully she gets that confidence through this little period and heads into an ODI World Cup where she can dominate.

‘If she truly believes in her own ability and what she can achieve, I don’t think there’s too much stopping her.’