GET YOUR KIT ON - CRICKET:Continuing his series on taking up a new sport, Emmet Maloneturns his attention to the classic game of cricket
IT’S COMFORTABLY more than a century now since the changing political and social landscape in Ireland left the sport of cricket retreating towards the island’s major urban centres of Dublin and Belfast. Gradually, though, the game has started to extend its reach again, spurred on by the national team success at the last World Cup, dramatically improved promotion of the game and the arrival of immigrant communities who regard the sport in much the way we do soccer or Gaelic games.
As it happens, I briefly thought I was about to make some tiny contribution to the game’s Irish renaissance a couple of years back when during a late-night taxi ride my driver told me that he had played for the Pakistani under-21s before leaving home for here. An intensive attempt to have him declare for his adopted homeland followed although I suspect the positive noises he was making on the subject by the time the journey finished were primarily aimed at getting me out of his car.
Around the same time, it seems, some Indian man in west Dublin were making a rather more concrete contribution to the cause when they decided that rather than simply meet up to throw a ball to each other on a regular basis, they might explore the idea of starting a club.
In little over a year, thanks to the support of Cricket Ireland, interested locals and South Dublin County Council, Adamstown cricket club has been established on a model that looks set to be followed in places like Clonee, Dundalk and Sligo, affording a growing number of people who have never previously had the chance to play the game, to give it a go.
“There’s a lot of interest out there,” says Paul O’Boyle, one of the key figures in the development of the Adamstown club, “and what we’re developing now is the capacity to capitalise on that interest by bringing the game to communities where it hasn’t previously been established.”
The game has traditionally been characterised as the preserve of a rather exclusive bunch, with Brian O’Rourke, a development officer for the national association, acknowledging that even within Dublin it has had little presence down the years outside of the smallish enclaves in Sandymount and the north of the county.
That, he insists, is changing, however, with clubs in Wexford, Waterford and Kilkenny the start of an expansion that is now being followed by the likes of Adamstown.
“There is only one club in each of those counties at present,” he says, “but it’s a start and the challenge is to build on what is a strong foundation.”
At schools level, the pace of growth has been quite dramatic given the limited size of the base, with O’Rourke getting into primary and secondary schools to introduce kids to a game, the essential elements of which – throwing, catching and hitting a ball with a bat – come very naturally indeed.
In Northern Ireland, the organisation has even formed partnerships with the likes of St Columb’s in Derry, whose long list of well-known former pupils includes Seamus Heaney, John Hume and Eamonn McCann.
“The game was actually fairly untouched by the Troubles,” says local Cricket Ireland committee member, Barry Chambers, “but the end of them has probably allowed us to bring the game to places where we mightn’t have been able to before.”
O’Boyle insists that for anyone of a more advanced age looking for a rather relaxed route back to the world of field sports, there is a welcome waiting, with various mainstream leagues offering plenty of opportunities for newcomers to find their level.
“There are 13 leagues with 10 teams in each operating from April to September,” he says, “and the standard in league 13 is probably not, eh, great.”
One possible reason, of course, is that the game is legendarily “social”, an enormous plus when it comes to putting in a good day out, meeting people and making new friends, but not necessarily for the best if improving your health is really a priority.
Once you don’t get carried away, though, the game offers a decidedly relaxed route back into sport that should help to build both physical fitness and agility over time.
WHAT THEY SAY . . .
‘Cricket is basically baseball on valium,” according to American comedian Robin Williams, a theory you can judge for yourself in Corkagh Park, out by the Naas Road in Dublin, where both sports are now played a short distance from each other.
WHAT IT DOES . . .
‘Well, it does have a bit of a name for the social side of things, acknowledges DCU’s Dr Giles Warrington, a physiologist and expert in exercise, “but cricket has changed a great deal over the years and there’s the potential for a very good workout if you want to take it any way seriously.
“Obviously, a lot of people still think of the game in terms of the five-day test matches, which do appear to involve a lot of standing around doing very little, but the pace of the game has changed dramatically with the growth of 20/20 cricket [a shortened type of match lasting just a few hours] and if you’re bowling or batting for a prolonged spell and running between the wickets, it can be pretty tough going in terms of busts of high intensity work.
“Even when you’re doing neither in the longer matches, you need to be fairly fit because there’s a fair bit of stamina required just to stay out there and keep focusing.
“The standards keep rising and you’ll find that there’s a lot more expected now in terms of fitness from fielders who previously wouldn’t have been expected to do too much.”
WHAT IT TAKES . . .
There’s a reasonable amount of equipment to be amassed if you are thinking of taking the sport up, and while it’s all provided to younger children, you will be expected to buy your own if you’re going to stick with it beyond a fairly short trial period.
The likes of a bat, helmet, pads and other related items are likely to set you back about €300.
As with pretty much any sport, though, much depends on the extent to which you want to commit yourself, with bats for instance ranging from about €100 to more than three times that amount at specialist retailer edsports.ie.
WHERE IT’S AT . . .
As ever, the associations website (cricket4europe.net/IRISH CRICKET/) is a good starting point although many clubs have their own sites. Contact details for Adamstown cricket club are available at Adamstown.ie, and the club will be staging an event on September 19th at Adamstown Green as part of the Lucan festival at which people will be able to try their hand at the game.
