Breaking Boundaries

There is something about the Irish when we're written off that makes us excel - be it at football, rugby, and now cricket. Being branded hopeless and inept by those regarded as the cream of the crop of their sport must simply rally the Celtic blood. Granted, there's an ostensible flipside to that coin that involves us being crap whenever expectations are raised marginally above sea level; but The Irish cricket team essentially took part in a Disney film last year - only nobody handed them a script. Apart from an apparent murder, the death of a much-loved senior Irish cricketing figure and copious amounts of consumed booze, it's pretty much taken straight out of a cliched American kids movie. A bunch of amateur cricketers took on the world's elite and actually beat two of the best teams on the planet, making the much-coveted 'Super 8'. They therefore ensured a new dawn for something that was barely conceived as a sport on these shores, until their highly publicised and heroic exploits. And what a likeable bunch they are, too. There are no egos on show here; just some friends doing something they love and playing out of their skins for a departing coach. While production values are (unsurprisingly) low, access to the backroom staff and the team itself is close enough to be intimate, and engaging enough to still be nail-biting nigh on a year later. Credit to the man responsible for the doc, Paul Davey, for his engrossing work behind the camera and the apparent foresight to know something special was on the cards. An incredibly feel-good documentary that echoes the great Irish sporting achievements of the '90s, and highly recommended.