IT’S not hard to work out why Barry McCarthy is one of the most popular of Ireland’s small band of professional cricketers.

The Blarney Army loves his whole-hearted bowling, his fearless fielding, and his willingness to wield the bat in whatever way is best for his team. But his career was no well-oiled path and he has had to fight for all he is achieved in his 31 years.

Even now, he has had to battle a few physical demons to be fit to take on the likes of Babar Azam and Virat Kohli at the T20 World Cup in the US.

‘It’s the nature of fast bowling you’re always going to have niggles, just the nature of the repetition of pounding down on the hard crease causes some wear and tear. I’ve had a couple of operations but I think I’ve had a decent run in my career – over the last 18 months/two years I’ve been pretty good apart from a couple of niggles. The body feels good, I’ve a lot more to give in the tank.’

He’s already given plenty – 100 caps worth for his country, and plenty more for province and club. He missed out on representative selection several times in his teens, and was nearly 24 when Ireland came calling, already with a dozen games for Durham under his belt.

His break with the county came in Malahide in 2013, where he was helping out as a net bowler at England’s practice session on the eve on an ODI. McCarthy bowled a testing spell to Ben Stokes, who had a chat with him afterwards.

‘He asked me did I want to go over to Durham. He took my phone number and about six months later I got a text saying “Ben has recommended that you for a trial. Do you want to come over?”.

The future England captain continued to impress the young Dubliner. 

‘Ben has such an amazing work ethic – you would go into the trenches with him. I remember the first couple of sessions I had with Durham; he was the first one out there, extra fielding, bowling his overs and being asked to stop – and not stopping! – hitting in the nets for hours, just constantly working at his game.
   
‘That was a real eye opener for me: he’s obviously very talented but what stood out to me was his work ethic. I’m not one bit surprised to see where he is in the world game now.’

McCarthy is one of a small number of Ireland players with experience of county cricket, which he thinks is a shame. ‘I don’t think I can overestimate how valuable that five years at Durham was to my career’, he says. ‘At the stage I was at, going over at 22-23, thrown in at the deep end of playing four or five days a week, you just sink or swim. There’s only so much you can get out of training five days a week as against playing five days a week.

‘You have to think on your feet, you have to adapt, cope with pressure – it was so valuable to me at that stage of my career. I’m not sure I would have been able to get that opportunity over here, the volume of cricket, quality of opposition. before I broke into the first team.

‘The 2nd XI was an incredible learning opportunity for a young cricketer, getting to play two T20s on a Monday, a three-day game Tuesday to Thursday, and 50 overs on Friday, week-in, week-out.  Bowling all those overs helps you feel comfortable, and learn to adapt when you’re feeling uncomfortable.’

McCarthy soon settled into the Ireland squad and became the sixth fastest bowler ever to reach 50 ODI wickets. He shrugged off some of those niggles to play against Pakistan, Scotland and the Netherlands recently and is looking forward to playing a big role in the US.

‘It’s really exciting to play two games in New York and two in Florida’, he says. ‘It’s a great initiative to try and grow the game in the US, and the India versus Pakistan game will be one of he most sought-after tickets in sport this year.

‘We played the US in Florida just before Christmas 2021 in what was supposed to be a six-game series but we only played two because of Covid. They beat us in one, we won the other and they’re going to be competitive in this World Cup. They’ve been building up for it for a while, they’re going to be a tough team to play.’

McCarthy also played in a down-at-heel franchise tournament called the US Open the following winter, lining up with teammates Lorcan Tucker, Andrew Balbirnie and George Dockrell. ‘It wasn’t really the franchise tournament that we know. I’d love to try a bigger one, these world cups are the shop windows and a great opportunity to go out there and show the world what you can do.’

McCarthy has only played in one global tournament – the T20 World Cup in Australia two years ago – and did well, picking up top-class scalps in David Warner, Aaron Finch, Dawid Malan and Mitchell Marsh. 

But his best memory of that time was of two other men batting. Chasing 177 against Scotland, Ireland were 61-4 with half the overs gone. 
 
He recalls: ‘In the first innings I didn’t do myself any favours with the ball, just one of those days when I didn’t execute and I went for a few runs, and I left the field thinking “if we don’t win this game we’re going home”, and you couldn’t help but think your performance wasn’t up to it and you put a bit of blame on yourself. 

‘I was anxiously watching the second innings on TV in the changing room with Stirlo and Josh Little. The TV was a few seconds behind so there were lots of cheers when George Dockrell and Curtis Campher were going well so there was a lot of running in and out to check. That will stick with me, the magnitude of that chase at the time. 

Then we went on to beat West Indies, qualified for the next phase, and went on to beat the eventual winners England at the MCG. To come out of that situation and go on and win the game was absolutely phenomenal.’

McCarthy doesn’t want to finish his career without winning a game for Ireland with the bat, and that aspect of his game is underrated. Two years ago he hit a 55-ball century for Leinster Lightning – only the fifth scored by a No9 batter. And last summer he became the first No8 batter to score a half-century against India. He was delighted to hear his T20I strike rate is superior to Ireland’s star Harry Tector. Is he close to being seen as a genuine all-rounder?

‘It’s brilliant if you can be as good as you can be in all facets of the game but ultimately my job in this team is to take wickets. But if the chance comes to do a job with the bat that’s something I relish. I work hard on my batting.’