Scott and Warke to call it a day

IT HAS BEEN quite a week for retirements. Dickie Bird's tearful farewell at Lord's received considerable media coverage and now two marvellous servants of Irish cricket have decided to call it a day.

Derek Scott, so, influential as ICU secretary and Stephen Warke, Ireland's most prolific batsman ever, have announced their respective retirements within a day of each other.

Since taking over as secretary from the late Jimmy Boucher in 1974, Scott has effectively been Ireland's "Mr Cricket". Apart from overseeing the affairs of the four provincial unions, he is a highly-respected figure at Lord's, where he has done tremendously well to promote the Irish cause.

Our participation in the NatWest Trophy since 1980 and mores recently in the Benson and Hedges' Cup has been due primarily to his tireless efforts. Probably his greatest coup was in 1993, when he secured associate membership to the International Cricket Council, which enables the Irish side to compete in the World Cup qualifying tournament.

David Richards, the ICC's chief executive, was quick to pay a compliment to Scott's abilities when he visited this country a few months ago retirement at the end of the next season should allow him to spend a little more time following the fortunes of Railway Union. The Park Avenue club is, of course, his real home.

Essentially a conservative, it's only reluctantly that he has accepted the predominance of the limited-overs game. His Oakley wraparound shades represent a surprising concession to modern trends, though he insists he wears them for medicinal reasons only. A unique figure, it's hard to imagine anyone doing a more efficient job than he has done.

Stephen Warke's final innings for Ireland, at Castle Avenue six weeks ago, could not have been more, inappropriate. Gloucestershire's Kevin Cooper, by now a trundler in county terms, trapped him lbw with a fullish delivery, the very first of the Irish innings. Unavailable for the next couple of games, the Woodvale man then failed to regain, his place and fails, unfortunately, to go out on a more fitting note.

The irony of that final dismissal will not be lost on those who played with him over the past 15 years or so. In that time, Warke has had to contend with bowlers who were considerably less friendly than Cooper and invariably, he coped admirably.

Selected first in 1981 against Canada at Ormeau, he was capped a record 115 times for Ireland and passed Ivan Anderson's record for highest aggregate runs two summers ago. Overall, he scored 4,275 runs at an average of 30.31, including four centuries and 28 fifties. He was captain on 38 occasions and would have led more were it not for an unfortunate injury sustained before Ireland's first game in the ICC Trophy in Nairobi two years ago.

While the Irish selectors must look to the future, they might just wish they could avail of Warke's determination for one more innings at Ormeau today. Sussex, who have given the Irish a rough time of it on more than one occasion, are the opponents yet again in the NatWest Trophy. Yesterday evening, Mike Hendrick described the track as "a road", which effectively means there will be plenty of pace and bounce for the Sussex pace trio of Drakes, Jarvis and Giddins.

Correction - Last week's column included a reference to a Leinster second-team player hitting his stumps in anger at receiving an lbw decision. This was not the case. The player had been clean bowled and his disappointment was not in any way directed towards the umpire. Apologies for any misunderstanding caused.