Ireland team gets into charitable mode

Ireland cricket team on Thursday supported the Goal Charity in Howrah, before Friday's match versus Netherlands.

The Municipal dump in Howrah which has population of 598 persons showed another side to the Irish cricketers as they supported the Goal Charity, which is an international humanitarian agency dedicated to alleviating the suffering of the poorest of the poor. The hit of the day appeared to be Kevin O'Brien, rather than a well executed shot coming from his bat.

The star of Ireland's show in the team's win against England is now a familiar face after recording the fastest 100 in World Cup history, the Ireland batsman said: "It's amazing and it touched me that so many knew me in such a rural area. It is a dump but the people are extremely happy, they obviously don't know any different the way they have been brought up, the way they live," says O'Brien.

O'Brien was really touched by his experience with the Goal Charity "It is an experience which will live long in my memory and it's great what Goal can do. The Irish money has been pumped in and there are decent buildings. We were in a very sturdy classroom and they are building houses as well. It looks good for that area," says O'Brien.

Ireland now head home after an impressive World Cup campaign, defeating England in what has been one of the games of the tournament and O'Brien knows how important it is to prove to the global cricketing world that Associates are important part of the World Cup set-up, speaking before the match versus Netherlands.

"We know it's a massive to really show the ICC we are the best Associate and that means putting in a big performance, like South Africa put in last night. We aim to win convincingly, bowl them out for a low total and really put our foot down and say we are No 1," added O'Brien.