ABU DHABI, UAE – Ireland Men’s captain spoke in the captain’s joint-press conference ahead of the first T20I against South Africa Men starting today.
On Curtis Campher playing his 100th match for Ireland…
“Yeah, it’s an amazing achievement, isn’t it? He’s so young as you said. He sort of came into our side against England in Southampton [2020] and straight away you notice how class a player he was. But I think over time up to this point, it’s his wholehearted approach. You know, he gives everything for us. He really puts his heart on the line …he’s been brilliant. If he doesn’t chip in with the bat, he does it with the ball. He’s always energetic in the field. So it’s really someone that we love having in the team and it’s a brilliant achievement tomorrow; wish him all the best. Hopefully a match winning score or performance in this 100th game would be lovely.”
On managing form…
“No, I think these things, you know, form comes and goes. I’m big enough and old enough and ugly enough to know that it’ll come back at some stage. And I think the important thing is to try and make as many contributions as you can, even if it’s not maybe match winning contributions? You know you still want to get the side off to a good start. You still want to cap them well in the field, so there’s a lot of areas that hopefully I contribute.”
Reflecting on your performances as a player…
“Usually every Christmas I sit down and have a look at my form over 12 months and naturally, probably this time when you get there and be like you definitely could have done better. So that’s up to me to try and improve over the winter and we’ve got that time up until our next series in Zimbabwe. So I think that’s where I am with my own game. Hopefully there’s a score around the corner, but I’m not in dire straits by any means.”
On developing the side in this next T20 World Cup cycle…
“We talk about cycles and this is probably as far away from a World Cup or two World Cups coming up that we have been in a long time. I think it’s as far out as we have been. So I think that’s a really good time to build a few new players and see what they can bring to the table. Certainly from my point of view, again, I’ll repeat the results isn’t as important as the process to getting better over the next 12 to 18 months. Of course we want to win and we will be trying our utmost to, but to see someone come out with five more caps under their belt, or ten by the time next year comes around, that can only help us. So we’re really excited about the future.”
Details about the series here.