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Dockrell’s Sabina Park Debut

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Seven years on from his debut in Sabina Park against the West Indies, George Dockrell will be looking to spin Ireland to victory in Belfast on September 13th.
Sitting in the changing room getting ready to make your One Day International debut. Thousands of miles from home and three months shy of your eighteenth birthday. All around you sit legends of the Irish game you’ve idolised from afar.

Over there is Trent Johnston, Kevin O’Brien isn’t far away. Alex Cusack and Andre Botha are going through their final preparations before taking the field.

It’s Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica, April 15th, 2010.

The most famous of cricket grounds in Irish sporting folklore and you are George Dockrell. Four years ago you weren’t a spin bowler. Three years ago you watched Ireland defeat Pakistan on St Patricks Day 2007 in this stadium. These players sitting around you are your heroes, now it’s time for you to join them on the field.

“Having looked up to Trent so much, I never thought I’d have the chance to play with him and all those guys,” Dockrell says. “I knew there was a sense of occasion making my ODI debut at Sabina where so much history had happened for Irish cricket.”

George Dockrell turned 25 on July 22nd 2017, he’s still a young man in the international game, particularly for a left-arm spinner who only began bowling spin as a 13 year old. Yet, because he was identified as having a rare talent and made his international ODI debut before completing his Leaving Certificate exams, he seems to have been around this Irish side for ever.

On March 17th 2007, the Ireland cricket team made their greatest breakthrough on the international stage. A part-time team of cricketers took the field at Sabina Park on what turned out to be a pivotal day in Irish cricket’s journey towards the recently granted full ICC membership.

Those watching at home could feel something stirring within them as Trent Johnston, Kevin O’Brien and Andre Botha (among others) helped bowl Pakistan out for 132. Then the cricket team did what every Irish international sports team does to its’ fans and made it difficult for themselves. Ireland lost seven wickets in the chase but with 72 from Niall O’Brien they defeated Pakistan by 3 wickets with 32 balls remaining.

What followed has gone down in history as probably the best St. Patrick’s Day party ever seen! One young man watching on, however, was a 14 year old George Dockrell. Not for him merely wishing to be a part of the set-up, he would ensure he became a key part of the current Ireland side.

He looked up to and was inspired by these players. They were forging a path for cricket in Ireland that Dockrell would one day be able to walk down. As the heroes of Sabina Park, the victors over Pakistan, called home and sought extra time off work, Dockrell simply carried on with school and found ways of emulating those same heroes.

In 2010, Dockrell was selected for the Ireland tours to Sri Lanka and then to the Caribbean. He made his International T20 debut in Sri Lanka, before the tour moved on to the Caribbean islands and a One Day International with the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica.

Now Dockrell found himself in the changing room alongside many of the players he had watched beat Pakistan at the very same ground just three years before.

“It was very special to join your heroes and I really enjoy looking back on those early days. They were great presences, great leaders and I really enjoyed the environment I came into,” Dockrell added.

George Dockrell has gone on to play 68 ODIs since that debut in Sabina Park two months before his Leaving Certificate exams. In two months’ time he will play his 69th ODI when the West Indies visit Stormont in Belfast.

Click here for tickets to see the next chapter in the storied history of Ireland versus the West Indies at Stormont Estate, September 13th, 2017

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Dockrell signing autographs on the boundary against Bangladesh at Malahide in May this year
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