Summer Sports - Cricket
We revisit the new ‘home of Irish cricket’ at Malahide Cricket Club in Dublin following the ground’s first International fixture in September against England
I
rish eyes were certainly smiling on Tuesday, 3rd September, when a crowd of 9,600 gathered to watch the home side take on England in a One Day International (ODI) at Dublin’s Malahide Cricket Club. Blue skies and glorious sunshine bathed the already picturesque ground; providing a fitting backdrop to the historic event - which not only set a new record for the largest audience ever to watch a game of cricket on the island - but marked an important milestone in a project pivotal to Ireland’s future in the sport at international level. While the visitors took a 6-wicket victory over the Irish side, the result did little to dampen the spirits of a home crowd buoyed by the coming of age of the 700,000 euros project to build Ireland’s only 10,000+ capacity International standard cricket ground.
Grand designs
Set within North Dublin’s beautiful Malahide Demesne Regional Park, in the grounds of the historic Malahide Castle,
Malahide CC was established in 1861. With a location as convenient as it is romantic, and home teams playing cricket to the highest level in Ireland, it was a natural choice as the new ‘home of Irish cricket’; and for the development of facilities that will not only enable Ireland to host international matches but advance the drive to field an Irish International Test Match side by 2020. To bring the ground up to standard, a joint project between Malahide CC, Fingal County Council and Cricket Ireland - bankrolled by a combination of club fundraising and donations alongside funds from the Central Government’s Department of Sport and Fingal County Council - was commenced in 2009. Due to funding restrictions, as Club Trustee Ian Talbot explains, work is being carried out in a series of prioritised phases: “In order to host international matches, it was essential that we construct a One Day International standard ground that met ICC regulations. We prioritised the ground
The ‘craic’ of leather on willow!
74 PC OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2013
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