An Irishman’s Diary: Thirty years not out

Peter Oborne, the celebrated English journalist, first knew Ireland as the son of the military attaché in the British embassy in the 1980s. It was a tense time for British diplomats and their families here in the wake of the destruction of their embassy in 1973 and the assassination of the ambassador three years later. There were demonstrations in favour of IRA hunger strikers at the gates of their new embassy and the slogan "Brits Out" adorned roadsides as well as the placards of demonstrators.

Far from being put off, Peter collected a team of chums in 1984, many of whom had been with him at Cambridge, to cross the Irish Sea to play a week’s cricket in Ireland. He styled them the White City All-Stars. This week, 30 years on, he returns with his team for what has become an annual tour. They play at rural venues such as Mount Juliet in Kilkenny, Athlone, Galway and the model ground near Brittas in Wicklow created by Yorkshire entrepreneur Peter Savill.

Peter Oborne has many happy memories of these visits to Ireland and the friends he has made. One friend he and his teammates especially cherished was journalist Alan Ruddock, who died four years ago aged 49, having suffered a fatal heart attack on the cricket field – a lovely death, but far too soon. Alan was their host every year when they visited Kildare to play the Halverstown club at their scenic ground beside the Liffey at Harristown.

It was in Kildare, playing the Army at the Curragh on an early tour, that they were greeted by the commanding officer: “This is the first time that the English have played the Irish at the Curragh – with the Irish as hosts.”

Thirty years on most of the old-stagers rank as enthusiasts rather than stars and are glad to welcome young blood, some from their own families. They still play to win, though in the best Corinthian tradition there are no hard feelings if they don’t.

Peter Oborne himself has achieved stardom in cricket as a writer with a biography of Basil D’Oliveira, a South African belonging to the Cape “coloured” community who played cricket for England in the 1960s. D’Oliveira’s selection on an England side to tour South Africa led to the cancellation of the tour so precipitating the sporting isolation of that country until apartheid was dismantled. He came to Ireland in 2003 as a non-playing member of the White City team.

There are usually some players from the Indian sub-continent in the party. Peter himself has just published a history of the game in Pakistan, a study of politics as well as of sport. He highlights the shoddy treatment meted out to Pakistani cricket in its early years by the cricket authorities in England.

It is the attitude of condescension underlying such behaviour and its unfortunate consequences that Peter has pilloried, criticising British foreign policy in Iran, Iraq and other parts of the Islamic world. Writing in the Daily Telegraph and the Spectator he has praised the domestic achievements of the Cameron coalition, in which former White City All-Star Danny Alexander is a minister. But their foreign policy, warns Peter, is a disaster.

Journalists who are part of Oborne's team include Tim Shipman, the political editor of the Sunday Times and Damien McCrystal the Belfast-born former city editor of the Sun.

Other names with resonance who return in this year’s squad are Alex Beard, the new chief executive of the Royal Opera House and Anthony Oakshett, whose painting of the defeat of the Spanish Armada graces the House of Lords.

Two years ago another long-standing All-Star, William Sitwell, a scion of the literary family, made his own mark as a writer with a charming volume full of historical tit-bits entitled A History of Food in 100 Recipes. After 20 years of tours, he confesses that he is more impressed by the improvements in the standard of cuisine in Ireland than that of the cricket in which he takes part.

I suppose most of us players are getting older.

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