A Presidential Diary Part 7
September 5th 2013 by Robin Walsh | International
Cricket Ireland President Robin Walsh gives us his latest update from the pen of the president, reporting now on a day that all those present will never forget as the RSA Challenge came to Fortress Malahide on a beautiful late summer’s day.
Michael D Higgins’ day works like clockwork. The Head of State’s arrival at Malahide for the Big Match was scheduled for 2.29pm and so it was that on the dot the Presidential party pulled into the ground to meet both teams during the lunch interval.
William Porterfield introduced him to the Irish team but not before President Higgins had congratulated him on his morning session century. Then it was Eoin Morgan’s turn to introduce his England side as the President welcomed him home to the ground where he learned his cricket as a boy. They were fine touches.
It was then the President’s turn to be introduced to the crowd of upwards of 10,000 as he settled down on the VIP balcony to watch the rest of the game for the next three and a half hours. And he did so avidly, hugely impressed by the magnificent surroundings and the display of enthusiasm for the sport that now exists in the country. It was the icing on the cake for what many consider to have been the greatest day in the history of cricket in Ireland.
I will not dwell on the happenings on the field such has been the comprehensive media coverage which, in itself, is testimony to the strength of the game. Suffice to say it was a magnificent day’s cricket and it speaks volumes for Phil Simmons’ team that victory at one stage looked highly possible. Personally I take consolation from the fact that the most successful England batsman (Eoin Morgan’s 124 not out to take Man of the Match) and bowler (Boyd Rankin’s 4 for 46) are products of Irish cricket. But that’s another story ……
As President I have the privilege of a ringside seat behind the scenes and I have to say it’s an eye-opener.
The day before it was a five hour meeting of the 11-strong Cricket Ireland Board under its Chairman, Ross McCollum, and where Chief Executive Warren Deutrom, provincial nominees and four independent directors take stock of the present and plan for the future. Little wonder it took five hours for an agenda that included the finances of running a high maintenance business; major presentations on staffing levels on and off the field; a review of the new inter-provincial series and insights into the new Cricket Ireland Academy and what the ICC’s High Performance people expect of Ireland in the years ahead.
Dinner followed at which the guests hold much of the wellbeing of Irish cricket in their hands - Dave Richardson, Chief Executive of the International Cricket Council, Kieran Mulvey, Chairman of the Irish Sports Council and its CEO John Treacy, and from the main sponsors RSA, its Group Chief Executive, Simon Lee, and Chief Executive Officer in Ireland, Philip Smith. The talk was of tomorrow.
The sun shone brightly and deservedly so given the amount of work put in over many, many months by so many, many people.
The VIP balcony was filled as the Mayor of Fingal, the UK Ambassador to Ireland, the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport and more than a sprinkling of TDs and Senators arrived to join sponsors, Cricket Ireland executive members and the wives and girlfriends of the players.
More importantly the stands were filled, a huge tribute to the growing number of cricket enthusiasts, many of whom I had the pleasure of meeting as I stood outside the ground for an hour before the game started and in the stands during it. The occasion was part of The Gathering Ireland 2013 and I asked the project manager of the brilliant initiative, Jim Miley, how it rated among the countless occasions being held throughout the year. He surveyed the scene and said: “It’s up there!”
Cricket Ireland Presidents have to sing for their supper and, on this occasion, it was lunch. In welcoming – and thanking – guests I said one word came to mind in summing up the day: “Bravery”.
It was bravery on the part of the visionaries who foresaw the new Malahide. And it was bravery by those who staged the match.
As Warren Deutrom puts it: “There was a huge financial risk. Cricket Ireland ‘bet the farm’ on selling tickets on an unprecedented scale in this country, on ensuring full corporate buy-in, pulling together local stakeholders, on getting serious media coverage, on making a pop-up stadium on a green-field site look and work utterly professionally, and having great weather. We had to do it to prove it could be done.”
“That it all came together is a huge source of pride for everyone, past and present, who contributes to this growing beast called Irish Cricket.”
It all happened. And in my speech I left the Malahide club to the end. I explained that emotion would get the better of me as I paid special tribute to the great visionary, the late John Wright, around whom Irish cricket revolved in the 1990s and early 2000s.
As the club’s President, Alan Hughes, said in the match programme, it was John Wright’s dream and, sometimes, dreams come true.
I recalled that John always told me that on big match days he would get the train from Belfast to Dublin to stop at Malahide. The Enterprise stopped on Tuesday.
The day before the match I popped out to Dublin Airport to welcome the England team. I told Eoin Morgan that his mouth would open when he went to his old ground later in the day for nets. It did – as did thousands of others on the day.