cricket 2 March 2011
Forget that the Irish nation may have voted for change in the recent General Election, the real joy in the country right now is that we beat England in Bangalore at the Cricket World Cup. Oh yes. And it was made all the sweeter by the heroics of Kevin O’Brien who scored the fastest ever century in cricket ever. Now, normally pundits would be saying ‘a century? who scored it OFF Ireland?’ but today it was SCORED BY. Sweet. It’s no surprise to me that we’re handy at cricket though. The Irish national game is hurling and, no, it’s not based on vomiting, though I am sure it has induced its fair share of that. Hurling is a VERY skillful game of beating a ball around a field with sticks. It is, if you like, a fast, running game of cricket crossed with attempted murder (and without the stumps). And we Irish are very good at it. So, cricket is simply a far gentler version of what comes naturally.
