Windies visit brings lack of fixtures home to Balbirnie

Ireland's men's cricketers finally get to have a home series tomorrow as the West Indies rumble into town to play three one-day internationals in Clontarf and three T20 games at Bready, County Tyrone.

It has been 10 months since the last home match for Ireland, a one-off Test win over Zimbabwe at Stormont in July, and a year since the three-game series against Pakistan in Clontarf.

Outside of the three T20 matches against England at Malahide in September, Ireland's men’s side’s fixtures are thin on the ground.

A mixed-format home series against Afghanistan set for July was cancelled by Cricket Ireland due to financial constraints.

The proposed new European T20 league, involving franchise teams from Ireland, the Netherlands and Scotland, was also supposed to be played in July but probably won’t happen this year.

There is now talk that Ireland will play a tri-nations series against those two countries as a fill-in, but nothing has been announced and Irelad's proposed trip to Pakistan in September may not happen now due to the increased political tensions in the region.

For 34-year-old Andy Balbirnie, still Ireland's Test captain, but no longer involved in the T20 squad, the upcoming fixtures against the West Indies, comes as a relief to the squad, which is captained by his friend Paul Stirling.

"We want to play as much cricket as we can," Balbirnie told RTÉ Sport. "You don't have to be a rocket scientist to work it out, it's a pretty barren schedule."

"But these games are coming up now, so we've got to make the most of it and make sure that we're ready to go and all our prep is done. And once we get out of the field, we just go out and try to win games.

"I think like any team that you play at this level, you expect them (West Indies) to come with some high-quality players.

"There are a few names that are there from the last time we played them in Ireland in 2019, players like Shai Hope.

"John Campbell has just been brought into the squad and obviously Darren Sammy was a very experienced player himself and is now coach of the West Indies."

Kevin O'Brien (L) and Andrew Balbirnie batting together for Ireland in 2019

Balbirnie's former team-mate Kevin O’Brien, who is currently assistant head coach with Italy, has been drafted in by the visitors to give them what they hope will be an insight into how they can beat Ireland.

"I have no issue with it at all," insisted Balbirnie. "Kev is on the kind of ladder of his coaching career, and this is a big step for him.

"He's still working with Italy and trying to get Italy to a T20 World Cup. They've got qualifiers this summer coming up, which are important for them. And I think he knows Darren Sammy quite well.

"They played together a while back, so I think it made sense for all parties involved to have Kev on board. "It'll be interesting to see him in the opposite dugout, I hope it goes really well for him."

Does Balbirnie feel a sense of frustration at the lack of matches, especially at home?

"I'm currently not involved in the T20’s, so my international summer kind of finishes next week. I'll have to find something to do for the summer. Maybe play a few games for my club Pembroke, which would be nice to get back to.

"But yeah, when I first came onto the scene as an Irish cricketer, there were quite a lot of fixtures in most of the formats. And as we're getting on and becoming more established as the team, there almost seems to be less.

"It's unfortunately just the way it is, and as players we don't have control over that, but there certainly is a bit of frustration. But I don't think it'll hinder our performance or our will to win

"There is quite a good young core of players who are getting to the kind of the peak of their career now and, having been there myself, when you're at that stage of your career, you want to show your skills and talent as often as possible against as many teams as possible.

"I'm certainly at the back end of my career and I still feel like I'm playing good cricket, and I want to be playing more.

"It's what we do day in, day out. We do a lot of stuff in the gym and a lot of stuff in the nets, but there comes a time where you just need to be playing and playing matches against high calibre of players.

"We just want more. We're not asking for, you know, loads and loads of fixtures. We're just asking for more regular fixtures to give the guys chances to showcase their ability."

Ireland's injury list has grown ahead of the opening game of the West Indies ODI series tomorrow (10.45 in Clontarf) with Craig Young and Curtis Campher both ruled out for the duration.

Young sustained a hamstring injury while playing in an Inter-Provincial Cup match for the Northwest Warriors against the Leinster Lightning in Oak Hill and Jordan Neill has been named as his replacement for the ODI series.

Campher fractured a finger while batting in the nets and Stephen Doheny has been called in as a replacement.

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