The Ireland allrounder wrote about his experiences at the 2011 Cricket World Cup.

Four years ago in the West Indies, an Ireland cricket team played in its first World Cup.

We marked our debut tournament with a memorable win over Pakistan on St Patrick's Day, and secured our place in the Super Eight phase at Pakistan's expense.

It was a step very much into the unknown but one we arrived home from with incredible memories, having laid a benchmark for the future.

The belief then came from hard work and a short history of beating very good sides, mainly on home soil.

However, Adi Birrell, who was coach at the time, had left no stone unturned in our preparations and whilst it came as no huge surprise to him or us as players - the realisation and importance of our success was worth its weight in gold.

This time around and the belief hasn't wavered - eight of the squad are returning for their second World Cup, for what should be an exhilarating number of weeks in Bangladesh and India.

The expectation of the sporting public in Ireland and that of the players is somewhat higher than 2007 and with that comes a huge amount of responsibility for us as players to do our utmost for the cause.

One of our overriding memories of the Caribbean was the colour and entertainment the travelling Irish support brought to the tournament, and the swell of support has grown year by year.

Our preparations have been excellent. Thanks to the support of our team sponsor, we spent a month in Pune, India, allowing us to acclimatise in many ways, not least getting used to the subcontinent pitches and an opportunity to put in the hard work needed to succeed at this level.

We have also spent the last two weeks in Dubai at the ICC Global Cricket Academy where facilities were outstanding, again putting in the "hard yards" that should, in itself, breed confidence.

Two defeats in practice games against Zimbabwe and Kenya in Dubai illustrated how the winter climates of Belfast and Dublin still take time to get away from, as batsmen struggled to get into any rhythm.

However, having moved to Nagpur for our official warm-up games, the buzz surrounding the World Cup has lifted the players and the focus and enjoyment, so key to our success previously, is beginning to have its effect.

Final touches are now being put in place ahead of our opener in Mirpur against Bangladesh on Friday, 25 February.

A warm-up game against New Zealand on Saturday night was an excellent test, one we lost by 32 runs chasing 311. We then beat Zimbabwe by four wickets on Tuesday.

We couldn't have asked for much more in terms of match preparation.

What an occasion, what an atmosphere but ultimately what a disappointment.

Unfortunately, the latter of these is the overriding emotion after our opening fixture of the World Cup against Bangladesh.

We knew that the game was going to be well supported by the locals not only because of the demand for tickets by those on the streets but from every knock on our bedroom door by the hotel staff.

Tickets were like gold dust and us players had the best seat in the house. Bangladesh fans support their team in the most passionate and vocal manner, the like I have never seen before at a sporting fixture.

We went into the game full of confidence because of our thorough preparation and because of positive results against Bangladesh in past ICC events. They are a team which tries to kill off the opposition with a plethora of spin bowling and in their own backyard, in Dhaka, are a major threat to any team in the world.

Tamim Iqbal burst out of the blocks, belligerently hitting 44 off 43 balls, and with the score at 50 for no wicket after five overs we were staring down the barrel.

However, as has so often been the case with recent Irish sides, we came back into the game through excellent bowling and fielding (an area where we want to be among the best three sides in the competition).

George Dockrell, who at merely 18 years old has already over 30 appearances for Ireland, gave a performance that belied his years. He's a young man with a great temperament for the big occasion and deserving of the plaudits he receives.

The target of 206 that we were set for victory was something we were pleased with and provided us with a huge opportunity to get our tournament off to the perfect start. It wasn't to be as we lost wickets at regular intervals, eventually falling some 27 runs short, but the scenes that followed were simply incredible and had to be seen to be believed.

Hundreds of thousands of people came out of their homes and on to the streets of Dhaka to celebrate. Our coach journey crawled through the streets as police tried to keep them at bay. They were climbing lamp posts, sitting on barbed-wire fences, standing on the roofs of cars and buses and some not fussed about getting a baton around the kneecaps by the police. Pure joy was evident!

Throughout my 12-year Ireland career there have been many ups and downs but to lose a game we could, and should, have won ranks as one of the hardest defeats to take.

The magnitude of the defeat is, of course, increased tenfold with it being a World Cup. There is enough experience in this squad to know exactly where we went wrong and it's now imperative that we take positives from defeat and carry them with us.

We have just arrived in Bangalore for our next two group games, where we will be joined by a large contingent of loyal supporters, among them will be wives, girlfriends and family, who are so supportive and willingly provide an environment in which we can concentrate on trying to achieve our goals.

On Wednesday, we take on England at the Chinnaswamy Stadium and sporting tradition dictates that meetings between the two nations, no matter what the sport, are a great occasion and one where the result is taken seriously by all concerned.

We are yet to beat England despite falling just short on several occasions - two runs was the difference at Stormont in 2009 and rain prevented us from a taking advantage of a glorious opportunity at the Twenty 20 World Cup in Guyana last year.

If we play the positive brand of cricket that has been a hallmark of this side for a number of years then hopefully that will put us in a winning position, and one that this time we take full advantage of. Time will tell.

Boy, have I enjoyed writing this column! We are all still on a high after beating England but after much celebration we have got to get back to the job in hand. Our attention now turns to a thrilling encounter on Sunday with the hosts India, one of the tournament favourites. We have had plenty of rest and are getting focused on the task that lies ahead.

One of the greatest batsmen ever to lift a piece of willow in this game, Sachin Tendulkar, awaits among other world stars. However, with belief and renewed confidence there will be no fear as we target another major scalp.

Going back to the England match, there were about 200 fervent Ireland cricket supporters in Bangalore and they will always be able to say, "I was there"! For us players, a result like this has been on the cards for some time, however to beat England in a World Cup, breaking records along the way, has simply made victory so much sweeter.

One man in particular, Kevin O'Brien, played the innings of his life, recording the fastest World Cup century in quite exhilarating fashion. It is certainly a DVD that he can store in the cupboard and someday show the grandchildren.

From the most unlikely of positions he took us to the brink of victory with a simply world-class performance and one that must surely be one of Irish sport's most glorious moments. In the words of ex-football pundit Andy Gray, "Kevin O'Brien–take a bow son".

We always knew we had the confidence to cause upsets at this World Cup, and had talked openly about it. I have said previously it was not bravado but merely confidence from past results and in our abilities through hard work over long winter months. Chasing a huge 328 for victory requires a great deal of skill but above all mental strength to firstly believe and then to hold your nerve when the pressure is on.

The three calmest people in the ground just happened to be Kevin, Alex Cusack and John Mooney, who finally hit the winning runs.

Kevin has stolen the headlines and rightly so but in years to come hopefully people will not forget the vital contributions that Alex and John made. With more than 300 international caps between them it was proof that experience counts for a great deal in sport at this level.

England, an outstanding cricket team, fresh from their own brilliance in the Ashes series were left scratching their heads and were visibly shell-shocked at what had unfolded before them.

The scenes when the ball crossed the boundary line for the winning run were ones of euphoria and jubilation, both on the dressing room balcony and also in the stands where the supporters air fares were paid for tenfold. The celebrations carried long into the night as the hotel accommodated the team and all the Ireland supporters. To their great credit a few of the England team joined us, led by captain Andrew Strauss on what was a ruined 34th birthday for him.

As our opening batsman Paul Stirling said: "It will take a long time for the magnitude of this victory to sink in but after all, it's what we set out to do and it's only part of the job that we want to achieve." Bring on India.

Despite falling to defeat at the hands of India in our third group game of the World Cup in Bangalore, while disappointed, we knew that there were many positives to be taken from it.

Yet again, it was a tremendous occasion to play against a host nation in front of a 45,000 strong crowd, hugely passionate about their cricket and after our victory against England it was always going to be a sell out.

The few days after the England game were fascinating from the point of view of the interest it generated not only here, but back home. The good it has done for local sport, for the next generations of Irish cricketers and hopefully inspiring some children to take up the game at school or at a club will be worth its weight in gold. Kevin O'Brien has been trying to keep a low profile after his heroics but in India that is nigh on impossible, especially with pink dye in his hair!

It gave us great confidence going into the India game, however we were conscious of making sure we went through the same processes that led us to the England win, rather than just trying to ride the crest of the wave we had been on. It was a case of starting again.

We got off to a bad start but William Porterfield and Niall O'Brien showed their class in a century partnership that set us up nicely for a bigger score than our eventual 207 all out. Unfortunately, we lost wickets at regular intervals including a couple to the new Decision Review System. Each team is allowed up to two unsuccessful reviews of umpiring decisions and while it is seen by many as a positive addition to the game, there was room for debate in our changing room afterwards as to certain rulings within the system.

The noise that greeted the appearance of Sachin Tendulkar and Virendar Sehwag onto the playing arena for the Indian innings was simply incredible and their opening boundaries were met by the crowd in a similar vein. Sachin is without doubt the greatest batsman of his and possibly every other generation, it is his 5th World Cup, testament to a sportsman's desire to continue to perform at the highest level.

Despite a few early boundaries we were delighted with our bowling and fielding performance as we fought to the very end forcing the highly impressive Indian batsmen to take over 45 overs to chase the victory target. Our fielding has been the one area that we knew we could be up there with the best and so far so good. John Mooney has total disregard for his knees and elbows and rarely do you see them without fresh blood glistening in the sunlight. It's all part of the process and the huge pride that he and we have as a team have in our fielding.

It was a good week for us in Bangalore, great to see so many familiar faces from back home make the journey, some of whom have continued on with us to Chandigarh for the West Indies game on Friday. Our path to the quarter finals will be helped hugely if we can defeat an in-form side who blew Bangladesh aside in only a handful of overs. Hopefully Trent Johnston can win his fitness battle in time because that opening partnership with the 'big fella' Boyd Rankin is beginning to tick nicely.

Chandigarh offers a cooler climate, more akin to a 'scorcher' of a summer's day in Belfast or Dublin but the breeze is welcome and the rural landscape is a far cry from the bustling cities further south.

A win on Friday and the memories of Chandigarh will be cherished even more.

In sport, whether in the local park or in front of millions of viewers, there can be a fine line between success and failure. At the highest level you can be talking inches or even millimetres and against the West Indies we saw just how close the margins are.

When Kieron Pollard was at the crease for the West Indies we had two opportunities to put them under huge pressure and perhaps turn the game into a position of strength for Ireland.

First, we missed a difficult catch which was dropped running in from long-on and then John Mooney was unable to make the most of a run-out opportunity where, with one stump to aim at, he missed by no more than the width of a fishing line. These are the moments which are etched in the memory. Pollard, one of the most destructive batsmen in world cricket, went on to score 94 off 55 balls and while not taking the game away from us, his innings certainly transformed the momentum of it.

Chasing 276 to win and with Ed Joyce and Gary Wilson setting us up for a victory charge, Joyce was bowled for an excellent 84. Kevin O'Brien entered the fray and before he reached 10 that man Pollard, in a similar position on the field to where he had earlier been dropped, leapt forward and swooped to take a stunning horizontal catch.

Just when we thought that could be a game-changing moment, Gary Wilson was given out leg before wicket when pushing forward, in response to which he used the decision review system (DRS). Each team is allowed two unsuccessful reviews of umpiring decisions in an innings. The process for the decision is replayed for players and spectators to see on the big screen and in this case the umpire, despite a few polite questions from our batsman, ruled him still to be lbw. Gary was bitterly disappointed as he knew that with the batting powerplay to take, he and Ireland were well set to push for victory.

As players, we are positive towards the DRS system. Players make mistakes as well as umpires and it is designed to eradicate human error from a decision-making point of view. I'll leave it to others to decide if the DRS came up with the correct decision on this occasion.

There was huge disappointment in the dressing room after the game, not just because we had lost but because of the potential match-winning opportunity that had been constructed and then slipped away.

Similarly, the Ireland rugby team pointed to a small moment that cost them victory against Wales on Saturday. There was a quick line-out taken before the Wales scrum-half dotted the ball down over the try line. The only thing was that it was the wrong ball. It was a mistake that should and could have been avoided by a television review. It is that fine line again! The referral system used up many column inches in the papers the next day but to be honest the decision has barely been mentioned within our camp since then, as we realise that we had chances elsewhere to secure another victory.

The fact we are getting ourselves into match-winning positions in every game is a huge positive, it's such a shame we haven't converted a couple of these situations into Irish victories.

In what has been a great Group B we are going into our last two games still with a mathematical chance of making the World Cup quarter-finals. To get there requires a win over South Africa to start with on Tuesday at the impressive and famous Eden Gardens venue in Calcutta, before we will look to secure victory in our final game against Netherlands on 18 March.

When Morne Morkel took the final Irish wicket of George Dockrell on Tuesday night at the impressive Eden Gardens, it spelt the end of the road for us in relation to our quarter-final dreams.

We have a hugely important fixture on Friday against the Dutch at the same venue. However, when we board the plane for Belfast and Dublin there will be plenty of reflection on a tournament of ups and downs.

The biggest disappointment was, of course, the loss to Bangladesh. However, it was, if not forgotten, put in the shade by that magnificent night in Bangalore against England. Thereafter, we put in some sterling performances, not least in the field where for the majority, we have been outstanding.

It is easily the best fielding unit I have been involved in, and testament to the fitness levels and work done in that area by those behind the scenes.

We have put ourselves in match-winning positions in all the games and perhaps, with a bit more experience against the top nations, we would have come through victorious in one or more of these. When I say experience, there is no substitute for playing the best and learning to win against the best in different situations.

The statistics reveal we have only played seven one-day internationals against the top eight ranked nations since 2007 and that in itself perhaps makes our performances even better. But, more importantly, it highlights where we as players believe there is room for change. nWith the release of the news that both Ireland and Scotland are scheduled to play against Sri Lanka in July, it is at least a start in the right direction.

The International Cricket Council High Performance programme, which focuses on the top six nations below Test level - under the guidance of Richard Done - has been of great benefit to us and hopefully our performances here can illustrate how investment, both time-wise and financially, to grow the game is a must.

It's four years to the day that the 'class of 2007' defeated Pakistan on St Patrick's Day, but it would be wrong to compare that team with the one of 2011 as it would do a disservice to those that helped this team be what it is today.

Kevin O'Brien celebrates his record century as Ireland beat Englandn nWhat we can do is judge how far we have come - and that is evident both on and off the field. Perhaps most importantly, only two players were centrally contracted to Cricket Ireland in 2007, compared to 13 of the current squad.

There has been much talk about the reduction of competing nations at the next World Cup to 10 - however among us as players, there has been none.

I suppose what we desire is a process whereby we can at least have the opportunity to be in Australia/New Zealand in four years' time. Whether that is through a qualification process or through some other means, few would begrudge us the chance I'm sure.

The future of Irish cricket is bright and in the hands of some excellent leadership from grassroots to the top. The question is where we can be in four years' time - the answer in many ways lies with the ICC. We won't forget an incredible journey across the sub-continent and the passion that the local people have for the game of cricket.