Porterfield: "This is for every cricketer who's ever played for Ireland"

When Ireland’s captain William Porterfield leads out his team for his country’s inaugural Test match it will be felt as a collective triumph for a whole cricketing culture.

“It would be remiss if we didn’t talk about everything that went before us,” he said on the eve of Ireland’s one-off Test against Pakistan at Malahide, Dublin. “Not only over the last 5-10 years which everyone will probably remember most, but for every cricketer that’s ever played for Ireland.”

It’s been spoken about at length in the Irish dressing room, he said. And the sense has begun to materialise that the 11 cricketers who will make their debuts tomorrow are part of a lineage that stretches way back beyond their own careers.

It was evidenced in star batsman Andy Balbirnie’s tweet, in which he wrote that they will be representing “the 688 who went before us”; those who “paved the way for us to fulfil our dreams”.

And Porterfield echoed those sentiments today. “There’s a lot of people that have dedicated a lot of their lives to Irish cricket to make this day happen,” he said. “It culminates in us being lucky enough to be the ones that take the pitch for that first Test match.”

The backdrop to the third day’s play will be Past Players Day – a parade and celebration of Ireland’s finest cricketers from yesteryear, and Porterfield is well aware that the atmosphere will be particularly highly charged come Sunday. “That’s going to be a pretty special occasion. I think everyone that’s ever worn the jersey or done a lot of things behind the scenes and devoted their lives to it deserves a lot of credit for what’s going to happen tomorrow.”

But while the chance for Porterfield and his team to finally make their bow in Test cricket may be the culmination of many decades of hard work by players, coaches and administrators, it must also be understood as the starting point from which Irish cricket can one day become more sustainable.

“Every cricketer growing up wants to be a Test cricketer, and it’s still – as it says in the name – the test for individuals and for teams,” he said. “Last June the decision in terms of becoming a Full Member… Test cricket comes along with that, but the biggest thing is actually getting that full membership. Test cricket is a part of that, but what that means from the financial aspect should hopefully allow us to grow the game and make it more sustainable.”

Porterfield is under no illusions of the scale of the task to establish Ireland as a fully-fledged Test nation in the future. “It’s going to be hard to organise three- and five-Test series. It would be great if we could play a few Tests a year but it’s not really financially viable as it stands.

“We’ve got to develop our first-class structure and build our fixtures into that. And our ‘Wolves’ programme – which is effectively our ‘A Team’ set-up – that is going to be key for us over the next 12-18 months, in terms of having series played home and away. That’s the biggest thing for ourselves. We need to keep increasing our playing pool and giving them more experience, and then it becomes easier for those lads to transition into the first team.”

The build-up has not been without its challenges. Having to inform squad members that they have not quite made the cut has been a harrowing process, but Porterfield has been stirred by the responses of those he’s had to disappoint. “For everyone that’s missed out, there are a lot of lads who are disappointed. But it shows the character and the attitude of our players, and that’s something you can’t lose.”

Striking the right balance between recognising the symbolism of the occasion and treating it as a hard-bitten international cricket match has further challenged his captaincy credentials, although after a decade at the helm Porterfield has tackled everything the job can throw at him.

In the immediate term, he insists that his charges will remain focused on the “battle”, and that the days after the match will offer the chance to step back and take it all in.

In the meantime, there’s a Test match to play. “We’ve always got a chance. It’s sport. It’s two teams going out to face one another. We’ve got as much chance as anyone. If we do the basics right in our own conditions we’ve got a very good chance.”

This may be the 34-year-old’s crowning moment in an Irish shirt. But it is also feels like the start of something very special.