Cricket/Women's World Cup: James Fitzgerald, in Pretoria, talks to Miriam Grealey ahead of Ireland's opening game against South Africa today.

There aren't many Irish sportspeople who, having made their international debuts in 1987, are still performing at their chosen sport's highest level.

Big rugby secondrow Neil Francis first pulled on the green that year but has long since traded the dressingroom for the press box; Steve Staunton won the first of his 102 caps in 1988 but is now part of the FAI's history; and in that year a teenaged Sonia O'Sullivan was merely dreaming of Olympic Games yet to come.

Miriam Grealey is one of Ireland's lesser-known sporting greats but after 18 years playing for the Ireland women's cricket team, she is finally ready to bow out on the biggest stage available. The Women's Cricket World Cup gets under way today with Ireland taking on hosts South Africa in the famous Test stadium at Centurion.

Grealey has played all over the world, from the Caribbean, through Europe, to India and down to South Africa and New Zealand. And it is to Pretoria she has returned this week to take part in her fourth World Cup finals. It should really be five but not long after breaking into the national side as a 21-year-old, she was dropped for the 1989 World Cup in Australia.

"I still haven't got over that disappointment," says the still super-keen 39-year-old, only half-joking. It took Grealey a while to establish herself in the Irish team ("I carried oranges for four years before I played regularly") but she worked hard at her game and eventually became the mainstay of the Irish batting and bowling line-ups.

In collecting a record 74 caps (36 as captain), Grealey has compiled 1,343 runs, with a highest score of 101 against Pakistan. She has also taken 36 wickets, bowling a nagging and accurate brand of off-spin bowling. "Adi (Birrell, the South African coach of the Ireland men's cricket team) told me the wickets don't take spin down there. Not that it bothered me, of course, as I don't turn it anyway!"

Grealey's modesty is clear but she has never sold herself short either. She has witnessed unprecedented change in the women's game in Ireland and has adapted. In her early career, the players had to pay their own way to the World Cup. They put money aside each week for two years before travelling and were selling raffle tickets months in advance to help fund the trip. Now, with a major sponsor on board for the first time in the form of Bosch home appliances, the team have such luxuries as a professional coach, physio and all the free-team gear they can carry.

But with that comes a professional approach and fitness regime that was something of a shock to Grealey initially. "I have never been a great one for training but it is more tough now than it ever was. It has to be done. Whatever about other shortcomings, we have no excuse not to be as fit as the other teams."

Grealey will retire from representative cricket after this tournament and she is keen to go out on a high. A couple of weeks ago, Ireland captain Clare Shillington said the team had a good chance of making the semi-finals but Grealey is a little more conservative in her predictions.

"If we come in the top six (out of eight) it will mean we don't have to qualify for the next World Cup. That is really our first goal. After that, who knows? I do think the likes of Australia are well out of our reach," she says, indicating the West Indies and Sri Lanka are the most realistic targets.

It is an Ireland side with youth and experience in almost equal measure. Apart from Grealey, opening bowler Barbara McDonald won her 50th cap last summer and the sole Northern representative on the side Anne Linehan is also vastly experienced. Ireland will be looking towards Catriona Beggs, Linehan, Shillington and Cecelia Joyce for the lion's share of the runs.

With the ball, McDonald will spearhead the attack along with YMCA pair Nicki Coffey and Heather Whelan. Marianne Herbert is also in fine form while Grealey is normally given the onerous task of bowling at the death when the margin for error is minute. "It ruins my bowling figures," she says, with the grin of someone who relishes a challenge.

For today's opener the Irish have drawn confidence from the fact this inexperienced SA team will have home pressure to burden them. Much rests on the shoulders of 15-year-old batter Johmari Logtenberg, who is enjoying a purple patch of domestic form but as the South Africans are in a period of rebuilding, the Irish sense they might just be there for the taking.