A tied One Day International series in Clontarf and a West Indies win in the T20 version of the sport, with two of the three days in Bready rained off, was Ireland’s latest foray into the upper echelons of world-class cricket. And in September, England will be the visitors to Malahide for a three-day T20 series. But West Indies legend Joel Garner, who watched the June games from afar, would love to see Ireland playing more of the longer version of the sport. A regular visitor to these shores in the 1970s and 80s, Garner recalled: “The standard of cricket was not up at that time.” However, Garner added: “Now you are competitive with the rest of the world. There have been a lot of changes, a lot of improvements, which is interesting. “At this stage for Ireland, what is needed is to play more three-day and four-day cricket. “If you want to play Test cricket, you have to concentrate on more three- and four-day cricket. I think the more three-day and four-day games you play, it’s easier. If you can play a four-day game, you can play a Test Match.” Easier said than done - and the challenges facing cricket here are widespread. Ireland did play a one-off Test Match earlier this year against Zimbabwe, and won by 63 runs. Last July, they beat the same opposition by four wickets. They have played Afghanistan (twice), England (twice), Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan since 2018. However, a seven-match tour by Afghanistan this summer, including a test, was scrapped, with Warren Deutrom, who recently announced his resignation as Cricket Ireland chief executive, explaining the decision as “part of our management of short-term budgetary constraints.” It was at a Test Match that Garner spoke to MirrorSport, but this one was thousands of miles from Clontarf, Malahide or Bready. We were at the magnificent Kensington Oval in Barbados. After a day in Bridgetown’s iconic stadium in late-June, watching the West Indies take on Australia, the question was, how could anyone NOT love this sport? The Aussie fans had arrived in big numbers, and while many were perched high up in the posh seats, there was lots of fun to be had pitchside. Behind rows of deck chairs and in front of a swimming pool, where visiting fans could cool down in the intense afternoon Caribbean heat, supporters were enjoying their own knockabout in the sand, using plastic chairs for stumps. Out of nowhere, two Irish accents. We weren’t long into our chat when we realised that Kevin and Ciaran grew up with Brian Flanagan, this newspaper’s head of sport. Small world. The pair are in the spirits industry, and when it comes to rum there is no better place to be than Barbados, the birthplace of the delicious drink. As the day drew to a close, we were led to a corporate box hosting the Cricket Legends of Barbados, an initiative to grow the grassroots game on this island paradise. Garner, nicknamed ‘Big Bird’ because of his giant 6ft 8in frame, is one of the main drivers of the campaign. He keeps a closer eye on Irish cricket than one might expect, and he sees similarities in the challenges both countries face when keeping young people engaged in sport. “When we were growing up, everybody played cricket. That was it,” he told us. “Now, you have got a lot of distractions. Everywhere you turn, you see kids with some sort of device, they are texting, things like that. “I don’t think we did a good enough job selling cricket to the youngsters, and that’s why we want to establish our cricket foundation and school, so that we can just deal strictly with cricket. “The distractions might be there, but if we can encourage some of the better players to play our sport, it will be good not only for Barbados cricket, but for West Indies cricket too.” And for Ireland? “There are a lot (of similarities). Get the kids out playing more sport, rather than playing with toys and games on the TV,” he said. “I’ve got two grandkids and I’ve been encouraging them to get involved in sport. “My young one is too young, he kicks a football and runs around with a football, but he told his mum straight away, I want to play cricket. He’s only three years old. That’s what he wants to do. “I think there is a balance between sport and academic life. I think team sport helps you to relate to people and interact, and do all those things that make you a better person. “I think one of the problems we have is we tend to organise all the sport kids play. “When we were growing up, we played our own cricket games, we played our own test matches between two adjoining districts, and it was just a matter of us getting together and playing cricket games. “During the school holidays we played lots of games. There wasn’t just one game going on. In a square mile area you could get maybe 10 games or so going on. This street, then the next street.” The Cricket Legends of Barbados programme aims to establish an academy, not just for elite youngsters, but for everyone interested in the sport. “For the past few years we have been building a brand,” he said. “What we are aiming for in the next year or two is to be able to deliver programmes and coach kids, produce well-rounded individuals who enjoy the game of cricket and who would go on, not only at local level but at the top. “We hope to have a cricket academy established in the next year or so, so that we can run the programmes and extend it to everybody. “There are elite programmes, but we want to run our system right the way through, go into the schools, promote cricket, do talks and provide cricket for all.” Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email.