Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's debut in Belfast would be ‘landmark day’ for Irish cricket: Cricket Ireland chair Brian MacNeice

The odds were heavily stacked against the side led by Lorcan Tucker. Firstly, India sent a full-strength team to Ireland for the two-match T20I series, and before the first match, the hosts lost six to eight players to injuries. However, Ireland has never been one to go down without a fight, and Tucker led from the front, hitting a half-century. He and Gareth Delany ensured that Ireland posted more than 180 runs on the board.

Debutants Jai Moondra and Matthew Hollard then stepped up with the ball for Ireland, and India only managed to post 148, losing the game by 34 runs. As soon as the final catch was taken by Tim Tector, the entire crowd of almost 5,000 people erupted at the Civil Service Cricket Club.

Only time will tell the ripple effect of this win, but the Cricket Ireland chair Brian MacNeice believes this win is the start of something special. He even believes that the victory would be great for the growth of the ETPL (European T20 Premier League), which gets underway this August. Speaking to Hindustan Times Digital a day after Ireland's famous win, Brian opened up on the expectations from the European league and also the fanfare that youngster Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is enjoying in Ireland right now.

If we continue to provide them with further opportunities more often to play against the best teams in the world, and we also expose them to playing with and against the best players in the world in the European T20 Premier League, all that will do is accelerate their growth and development, and you'll see more days like yesterday from the Irish team.

And so kind of seeing the start of that journey would be very, very special. And I think it would be, again, kind of another kind of landmark day for Irish cricket and the history of Irish cricket if he did make his debut tomorrow here in Ireland.

There's a very international dimension to the franchise league, and that's reflected in the ownership model. The founders of ETPL, the member boards and the owners of the franchises have all bought into a collective vision around the growth and development of the game across Europe, and I'm really, really excited about what ETPL is going to bring. I spent a bit of time going around the ground as the game is developing and speaking to some of the fans and talking to them about ETPL, and you could sense the excitement, and they want, they have an appetite to see more top-level international cricket, and they're going to get that with ETPL.

So I think what we want to do with ETPL is showcase the potential of European cricket so that everybody in India can see it, appreciate it, and get behind it. And indeed, I believe that a strong, growing European cricket ecosystem is good for the global game. There are more member nations in Europe than there are in any other region in the world. After Asia, in terms of fan followership and digital engagement, the European index is the second-highest. I fundamentally believe in the game's potential for growth in Europe, and I think that is good for the game globally. A strong European cricket system will be really good for the global game and its strength and growth.

And so ETPL is a fundamental building block of that kind of strengthening of cricket in Europe, and I think it's in everybody's interest, therefore, to back it, to get behind it, to get excited about it. I'm incredibly excited about it. I know the founders are, the owners of the franchises are, the member boards are, the players are, and everybody is brought into the vision for what we're creating, which is a long-term platform to grow the game in Europe, and that's got to be exciting for everybody. So yeah, the more that we can expose it in India and beyond, the better.

And it's going to give a platform for players that some people mightn't be aware of. I'm aware of them. I know how good they are. And I think it's going to help the rest of the world see how good some of the players in Europe are. And in particular, when they're playing with and against some of the best players from around the world. So yeah, it's just going to be, for me, that's the thing that is going to be the biggest success factor here, the calibre and quality of cricket, because everything else will look after itself.

If we've got a high-quality cricket product, everything else looks after itself after that. And that is exactly what we're going to get with ETPL. Because of the quality of the founders, the owners of the franchises, the players that have been signed up, and the emerging talent in European cricket. So I have no doubt whatsoever that the quality of the cricket will speak for itself. And once that happens, everything else follows from that.

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