CRICKET NIALL O'BRIEN Johnny Wattersontalks to Ireland wicketkeeper Niall O'Brien, who has taken his chance for glory and fame with both hands and now at 26 is looked on as a senior member of the Northamptonshire team

CRICKET HAS become fashionable. Was it not always so? As the Irish wild geese cross the water to populate the county sides and the national team continues to illustrate that it is not just another provincial backwater on the periphery of an English cricket hinterland, no less than seven current Irish players have settled quite nicely into the professional game.

The story of Niall O'Brien's tenure with Kent and his more recent spell with Northamptonshire is not one of an Irish player struggling on the outside but rather one of the Railway Union wicketkeeper getting a break from the then Irish coach, Adrian Birrell, and running with it. O'Brien is now one of the senior players in Northants, a World Cup veteran at 26.

O'Brien is a member of one of the number of famous families from Park Avenue, the O'Briens, the O'Mearas and later the Daggs. They formed something of a cricket and hockey dynasty, Ginger O'Brien and the late Joey O'Meara successfully crossing over both sports as well as providing the teams with talent for years to come. Those two names dominated the hockey and cricket horizon in the 1970s.

"Dad was a stalwart of the club," says O'Brien. "We were largely left to our own devices and it was a case of dad playing cricket and us going down, usually with the O'Mearas. We just sat down or played for six or seven hours."

In 2002 O'Brien was offered a scholarship to Port Elizabeth in South Africa through the Irish Cricket Union. That break opened his 20-year-old eyes and he caught his first real glimpse of what lay beyond leafy Sandymount.

"As soon as I arrived the access to coaches and facilities was brilliant. I knew that this was what I wanted to do," he says of arriving on the Eastern Cape. "Then after one of the games we played against Eastern Province, where Ado Birrell was the coach, he told me 'I'm your new Irish coach' and two months later he arrived in Ireland and brought me into the squad.

"I hadn't even kept wicket for Leinster at that stage. He took a gamble on me and he took a bit of flak over it. It didn't go down too well in some quarters."

But O'Brien repaid his coach's roll of the dice and in 2002 topped the Irish averages and was voted player of the year. By then Kent were interested and, seizing the opportunity, O'Brien stepped into the professional game.

"I remember turning up to these big gates that had 'Kent County Cricket Club' right across them. There were about 20 people in there playing. I got an instant buzz from the place and as a wicketkeeper there was a proud tradition there.

"It was a difficult start because I was used to playing on Saturday or Sunday whereas you were expected to play a four-day game, Wednesday to Saturday, and some one-day matches. But you had to get used to it or they'd get rid of you.

"What you learn is that you can't have success all the time in cricket and in life. It has taught me to play with a smile on my face and to prepare properly. When I was younger I was a lot more emotional about my performances than I am now."

Over four years Kent brought O'Brien on before he moved to his current club. Now in his second season there, he has been given more responsibility. The position of first-team wicketkeeper is his own. He opens the batting and is looked on as a senior member.

The reality is that he has played first-class cricket for six years and played with Ireland in a remarkable World Cup during which they beat Pakistan.

Winning that match was "probably the best day of my life", he says. That Ireland went through to the second phase and Pakistan departed seemed at the time an aberration but is now part of World Cup folklore.

"That World Cup was the best two months of my life. Will it ever be better than that? I don't know. We captured the imagination in Ireland and around the world.

"We had said before the start of it all that we wanted to put Ireland on the cricket map and we did. We knew we were good enough and even with the heavy losses I still enjoyed playing against those guys. All 15 of us (the team) were friends."

Part of the routine now is to face many of the best cricket players in the world with both his club and country. In between he has his English property investments and some business interests to attend to when winter down time curtails activity to fitness and rehabilitation following the six months of hyperactivity.

"Brian Lara was obviously something of a legend," says the Irish wicketkeeper. "Standing behind him when he gets 100 is quite good, special. He did that against Ireland in Stormont in 2004. (Kevin) Pietersen is a class batsman. There's a touch of brilliance about him. And Mark Ramprakash - every time I play against him he seems to get 100. He's a class player too."

O'Brien expects to have 10 good years in him before thoughts of retirement impinge and by then players like himself, Ed Joyce and William Porterfield, who travelled home with him for last weekend's Ireland game, will have shown how it can be done.

"I could play for 10 more years," he says, the enthusiasm undimmed. "That would be perfect."

"That World Cup was the best two months of my life. We captured the imagination in Ireland and around the world. We had said before the start of it all that we wanted to put Ireland on the cricket map and we did. We knew we were good enough and even with the heavy losses I still enjoyed playing against those guys . . .

Niall O'Brien Factfile

Born:November 8th, 1981, Sandymount, Dublin

Father:Brendan, capped 52 times for Ireland in cricket

Brother:Kevin, present international, capped 56 times

Sister:Ciara, capped 121 times for Ireland in hockey

Education:Star of the Sea, Sandymount and Marian College, Ballsbridge

Cricket Clubs:Railway Union, Kent and Northamptonshire

Batting style:Left-handed/ wicket-keeper

Ireland Career:Caps 56, debut July 2002 v Denmark, Stormont, Belfast

Overall Ireland record:1,822 runs @ 37.96, 73 catches, 10 stumpings

Highest score:176 v UAE. 4x100, 10x50

ODI Record:P27: 684 runs @ 26.31, 22 catches, 5 stumpings Highest score: 72 v Pakistan

Favourite Irish cricketer:Alan Lewis

Favourite international cricketer:Steve Waugh (Australia)

Favourite cricket ground:Sydney Cricket Ground

Favourite Band:Oasis

Favourite Film:Shawshank Redemption

Favourite Food:Mexican

Favourite Book:George Hook's Autobiography