In Cricket Ireland’s office, there is already a sense of missed opportunity. Since the India tour was finalised only towards the end of March, they couldn’t slot the two T20Is at Dublin’s Malahide cricket stadium, home to 12,000 seats which is now being taken up for a concert series. Instead, as Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is on the cusp of making history by becoming the youngest-ever to play international cricket on Friday, they are finding ways to answer the overwhelming requests to find a seat at the Stormont cricket ground, which at the most can only accommodate 5,000.
When Cricket Ireland slotted the fixtures to Belfast, there were apprehensions whether the Indian diaspora would make the trip to the northern most part of the country. The recent violence around the area, only cast more doubts. Instead, ever since Sooryavanshi’s name was included in India’s touring party, the hype around the fixtures has been beyond Cricket Ireland’s (CI) expectations.
“My phone is buzzing all the time with people looking for tickets,” CI chair Brian MacNeice told The Indian Express. “Unfortunately, we can host only 4,500-5000 fans. We could have filled it three times over if we had the room for it. Tickets were sold in minutes and even now people are looking for tickets,” MacNeice added.
While all India fixtures tend to get traction in these parts, this time it is undoubtedly the presence of Sooryavanshi, whose legend has travelled already to all parts of Ireland. Despite the FIFA World Cup being the big attention, that cricket is already being discussed among the public is largely down to the teenager. “It’s huge,” MacNeice says when asked about what Sooryavanshi’s arrival has done to the city. “Everybody’s talking about it. He’s obviously a really exciting talent. And that potentially he’s making his debut tomorrow means people want to be in the ‘I was there’ moment. He’s just grabbed everybody’s attention.”
The interest among the locals was such that for the game, CI held discussions with local government authorities to put up temporary stands. “All of the infrastructure that you’ll see for the game tomorrow, is all temporary infrastructure that is put in specifically for the game. We had a couple of meetings with the government to get the permits,” MacNeice said.
In many ways it is what Ireland cricket needed. With their focus firmly on the 50-over World Cup qualifiers, they are not scheduled to play any T20Is till 2027 summer. With almost half of their first team players injured, there were concerns if even a series against India would help them a great deal. After all, this is a series that Ireland expects will help them host New Zealand and Afghanistan later in the summer as well as for the women’s team.
The Sooryavanshi factor is so huge that during the time of the FIFA World Cup the Irish Times dedicated some space to the boy wonder. The BBC Northern Ireland has been cutting to cricket in the middle of its news broadcast. Word around is that the Irish cricketers are already tired of answering most of their questions around Sooryavanshi. One of the questions that the BBC NI posted to Ireland opener Ross Adair was, “What is it like batting at Stormont? This fella (Sooryavanshi) wants to score a T20 double century on his debut?” The show host then points out to the windows of the club house saying, “those would be in danger if he plays the slog sweeps. And those straight boundaries are certainly hittable.”
Nathan Johns, who covers cricket among other sports for The Irish Times sums up the mood in Belfast for the two fixtures to be held on Friday and Sunday. “It’s quite funny. I get the sense the Irish players are a little bit sick and tired of being asked about Sooryavanshi. I think everybody is expecting heavy defeats.
“When there’s that lack of competition and the games don’t mean as much, it’s hard to sell to the general public. But when you throw in a 15 year old, there are stories about him having to use his own changing room, his parents have to fly with him, all that type of stuff. All of a sudden, people who might not necessarily be normally that into cricket are going, what is going on? Why is a 15 year old here? Why are we hearing all these slightly crazy stories? The newspapers are slightly more interested. The local BBC radio station is more interested than normal,” Johns notes.
With all the focus firmly on Sooryavanshi, it is now for the India team management to take the tough call. For the left-hander to make his international debut, one of Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson or Ishan Kishan – who were their top three at the T20 World Cup they won, needs to make way. Having already dropped their captain Suryakumar Yadav, and a new era beginning under Shreyas Iyer, they already face a problem of plenty. Now, everything else also threatens to become a Sooryavanshi sideshow.
India vs Ireland, first T20I, 6 PM onwards on Sony Sports
