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In this episode we speak with Ireland wicketkeeper-batsman Niall O’Brien - and it's an episode with a difference. All the other players we’ve spoken with were hopeful of long Test careers when they made their debuts but Niall is a bit different.

A left-hander who played county cricket with Kent, Northamptonshire and Leicestershire for well over a decade, Niall first played for Ireland at under-17 level in 1999 and at that stage the idea of Test cricket for the country was not even a distant dream.

However, a succession of impressive performances in ICC limited-over events and in the ICC Intercontinental Cup, the global first-class competition for international sides below Test status, pressed Ireland’s case, and in 2018 they finally got the chance to play a match in the longest form of the game, against Pakistan at Malahide.

Niall’s professional career was very much in its final throes by then, but the

niall o'brien

Episodes