JOHN MOONEY can’t wait for Friday. “Ireland against England in Fingal is as good as it gets for me”, he told the Star yesterday.
“It’s as close to a home game as I’m ever going to see and to be playing in front of all my family will make it really special.
“It’s not their full strength side but considering how poor they were at the World Cup this England team could be even more dangerous. It’s full of professional cricketers.”
Mooney is looking forward to working with Ireland’s new coach, John Bracewell.
“I’ve met him a few times, and he’s a typical down-to-earth Kiwi. He’s calm, quietly spoken and seems a deep thinker about the game.
“He knows a lot about cricket and he’s worked with the best in the world, so it will be great to work with him.”
Mooney was at the helm for Leinster Lightning last week when they overcome Northern Knights by five runs in a T20 thriller at Stormont.
“The pitch was a bit dry which made it difficult to score freely, but we got home in the end.
“All the interpro sides are close enough now but I think we have greater depth and are more used to winning games.
“Andrew Poynter was excellent, carrying on from last season and saw us home.
“Poynts was very unlucky not to make the World Cup squad. He gave up being at the birth of his child to be in New Zealand on that warm-up tour and I think he was hard done by.
“I think we got the balance of the squad wrong and should have had an extra batsman and that would have been Poynts.”
After a lifetime at North County, Mooney made a surprising break last week to join neighbours Balbriggan.
“It wasn’t a surprise really, as there were a couple of things at County that didn’t sit right with me.
“There were changes I wanted made, and which were promised, but I didn’t find out they didn’t happen till two days before the season.
“Balbriggan are a club with no debt, a great committee and an underage system about to take off. And it’s still in ‘the Parish’ so I think I’ll be forgiven!”
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Friday’s game is the seventh encounter between Ireland and England, and only one man – Kevin O’Brien - has played in the previous six. William Porterfield, John Mooney, Niall O’Brien and the now-retired Trent Johnston have played in five – as has Ed Joyce, but his first two were in the blue of England.
Paul Collingwood and Ravi Bopara are the leading Englishmen, with four appearances. But England have used an astonishing 43 players in the six games, and only four of the 13 (Finn, Rashid, Bresnan and Taylor) have played before in the fixture.
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Ireland Women got off to an excellent start in the county championship at Kidderminster on Sunday, with a 128 run win over Worcestershire. Isobel Joyce showed the way with her best score in green, 127no, while Kiwi recruit Meg Kendall made 56.
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Despite a brilliant World Cup, Andrew Balbirnie has started the summer in Middlesex’s 2nd XI. But the former Pembroke man won’t be hanging around. He hit a career best 192 last week against Kent, a competition best score by an Irishman.
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Great to see County Galway CC taking their place in the Irish Senior Cup, making it a competition for all four provinces for the first time. They have a tough test in Fox Lodge, whose South African pro Marco Marais has made 104 and 189no in his two innings so far.
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