Dublin also provided Timothy O'Brien who won the first of his caps against Australia in Joseph McMaster County Down played his only first-class game for England in South Africa in , while Fane County Kildare would be the only Irish-born to captain England, winning 14 caps in the first decade of the 20th century.
Ireland witnessed the loss of a substantial proportion of its population; however, economic growth in the last decades of the 20th century has resulted in Ireland being a net importer of labour. Migrants from South Africa, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Australia and New Zealand have brought the love of cricket and their own particular skills to Irish clubs, helping to bolster the numbers playing and improve standards.
In an age where all-purpose terms like "globalisation" and "identity" predominate social discourse, Irish cricket can bemoan the loss of Eoin Morgan to the wealthier predators across the sea who can offer him a lucrative career in the sport. At the same time though, the national team will become less "Irish" as players whose birthplace is not Ireland qualify. Just as states come to terms with what it means to be Australian, Irish or English, so inevitably do their sports teams. Enjoy our content?
Join our newsletter to get the latest in sports news delivered straight to your inbox! He began playing as a child in the seaside town of Rush, County Dublin, and his old cricket club was celebration central on Sunday, with members thronging the clubhouse to cheer England home. Morgan, who plays county cricket for Middlesex, did play other sports growing up, notably hurling - leading some to attribute the left-hander's prowess at the notoriously difficult reverse sweep partly to his skills with a hurl.
However, while Morgan said it's "a fantastic sport", he said its link to his professional cricket career gets "blown out of proportion all the time". In , Morgan was made England's one-day captain, replacing Alastair Cook. The move came just two months before the Cricket World Cup - where England flopped, failing to qualify for the quarter-finals.
It was an inauspicious start to captaincy, but under Morgan's stewardship England recovered to become the number one ranked side going into this year's World Cup and eventual triumph. He churns up inside but he doesn't show it. He deserves it all. Morgan, whose mother is English, made his one-day international debut for Ireland in August but never hid his ambition to play professional cricket.
His only pathway to Test cricket was by declaring for England - at the time, Ireland was an associate member of the International Cricket Council but only full members can play Test matches. A British passport holder from birth, Morgan declared for England in What he observed, not just from his own side's lacklustre display, but the inspiration provided by Brendon McCullum's New Zealand side, convinced him an entirely new approach was necessary, with a policy of no fear and no retribution at its heart.
It required a man of strong will not just to say it, but to implement it, but Morgan did so, seeking to fashion an England side that would play with courage and be impervious to pressure or criticism. The revival he led was dramatic, culminating in England lifting the World Cup for the first time at Lord's on a nerve-shredding evening in July They went into the tournament ranked as the No.
Morgan, relentlessly committed to this bold style of play on good days and bad, was at the heart of the transformation. Morgan's self-sufficiency and independent thought has caused him to tread a path that has not always been popular with English administrators.
Although he strove for a while to play for England in all three formats, he played the last of his 16 Tests in and his interest in the longer format appeared to wane once he recognised he had little chance of a recall. A somewhat private man, he is respected by his players for his inner strength, cool temperament and tactical nous but remains largely a closed book to those outside the dressing room.
Once the selectors had decided to dispense with Alastair Cook just before Christmas in , Morgan, the regular ODI deputy, was the most obvious candidate. A left-hander who quickly built a reputation for inventive and audacious strokeplay, Morgan also possessed the patience and power of shot to be a natural "finisher" - a role England had struggled to fill for a decade. In some ways, he was a prototype, encouraging the English game to adopt a more inventive approach only subsequently to face up to the challenge that he might be overtaken by more highly-powered models.
As a young man in Dublin, Morgan was recognised as a cricketer of rare unorthodox talent, who plays the ball exceptionally late and was adroit both at sweeping and reverse sweeping. Time at Dulwich College only hardened his desire to play for England, which he never tried to hide back in Ireland. Morgan made his Ireland debut at the age of 16, making 99 against Scotland in Ayr, and was soon signed by Middlesex, who gave him his debut a week after his 19th birthday.
He floundered in the World Cup: batting at No. But he soon established himself in the Middlesex line up, especially in limited-overs cricket, and his switch to England was long anticipated.
After securing Ireland's qualification for the World Cup, in April , he was called up by England, thereby denying Ireland the chances to pick him in the World T20 and beyond. At the age of 23, he shot to prominence on the back of two match-winning innings against South Africa. First was a ball 67 in the Champions Trophy in September , followed two months later with an unbeaten ball 85 in the opening Twenty20 of England's tour of South Africa.
His bold approach and crisp hitting evoked comparisons with Kevin Pietersen. His growing stature was confirmed when he was the only England player to be awarded a new contract at the auction for the third season of the IPL in January But he failed to make an impression and was soon left on the bench. He returned to his best for England in the World Twenty20 in the Caribbean as his powerful shot-making and coolness under pressure helped England to their first triumph in global limited-overs events.
With three ODI hundreds that year, his first for England coming against Bangladesh in Dhaka, his reputation was soaring. Despite a modest first-class record he was rewarded with a surprise call-up to the Test side for England's first Test of the summer, against Bangladesh.
Walking out to bat at for 4, he could not have asked for a gentler introduction and showed enough confidence to pick up his first Test boundary with a reverse-sweep. With the retirement of Paul Collingwood, a permanent space opened up in England's Test side. Centuries against Pakistan and India represented the high points, but a disastrous tour of the UAE in early effectively ended his Test career. He remained an indispensable member of the one-day side, though.
And while there were prolonged fallow periods - from September , for example, he went a year and 17 innings without an ODI half-century and, by the time he was appointed captain, he had scored one fifty in 19 innings - he produced enough outstanding innings to retain his place.
While his captaincy record at domestic level was not inspiring and the World Cup campaign was painfully poor, progress was fast once England embraced a new coaching regime and bolder selections. A watershed series against New Zealand saw England, so hesitant and mediocre at the World Cup, pass for the first time in ODIs and secure their highest successful chase both records that were subsequently overtaken.
A new template had been set. Such was Morgan's stature within the side, he survived his decision to skip the Bangladesh tour in on security grounds and oversaw a spell of 12 bilateral series wins out of 13, including nine in a row broken only by an aberrational defeat against Scotland. If highlights were a victory in Australia in early and a whitewash at home later in the year, it was all a prelude to the World Cup where he became the first England captain to lift a global over trophy.
ESPNcricinfo staff. Representing two countries. Cricket News. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player. England captain Eoin Morgan has reiterated that he would be prepared to drop himself if he thought it would help the team win the T20 World Cup. Morgan's form has been the subject of much debate ahead of the tournament after he struggled for runs when playing for Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL, averaging just over 11 with four ducks.
He also notched only 49 runs in four innings for England in T20 internationals against Pakistan and Sri Lanka during the summer, although he admits hitting big scores can be difficult when batting at No 6 in the format.
Morgan, who led England to the over World Cup title in and the final of the previous T20 World Cup in , remains happy in his role as skipper.
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