As Ireland Men and Zimbabwe Men prepare for the first ever test match in Northern Ireland, attention also moves to the 22 yards between the stumps, known as the wicket or pitch, being prepared by Stormont groundskeeper Phil McCormick.
His work will have been a closely guarded secret as he curates for a match that will be watched around the world. The work itself will result in how the ball behaves after it’s delivered by the bowler, and how the ball behaves off the turf could help either Ireland Men or Zimbabwe Men win this test match. Phil McCormack has curated for big games before including fixtures against Australia, England and a memorable series against Afghanistan in 2016.
Phil McCormick on becoming a groundskeeper:
“I’ve always had an interest in it and I was given the opportunity here when I was 17 or 18 after I left school to come over for the summer and help out help out Tommy Hamilton, who was a head groundsman back then and enjoyed it that much that they decided to keep me on the Winter. I went to Greenmount and did my Level 2 NVQ in Sports and Turf when I was 18 or 19 and then I’ve stayed on ever since that.”
On preparing his ground for the test match:
“I’ve been 28 years in the job, and this is the pinnacle for me… for any groundsman you want to be a Test match groundsman. There’s hosting one day internationals against Australia and England and all the rest of it but actually being the Test match groundsman and having your Test match ground number is as big as you can get. So this is going to be huge. Yeah, you just hope it goes well. You would love to get it into the fifth day, that would be something really, really special.”
On the art of preparing pitches:
“That’s the thing about cricket. You can go out and cut a football pitch in the same height, have it looking lovely and you can do a speed test with the [foot] ball rolling over it. It’s not an exact science, but cricket is nowhere near an exact science. Like every pitch is different. You can get moisture… you can get impact hammers, you can dry it out. You can record the temperatures, the amount of rainfall, and it will still not play the same. And how the ball reacts with the cloud cover, the humidity, all these, dozens of different factors play a part… it’s not just the pitch, it’s the atmosphere… there’s no exact science and that’s why it’s so good preparing pitches. Because you know you can prepare hundreds of pitches, and you maybe never get the same one again. Possibly more art than science.”