World Cup heroes bowled over by welcome

SEVERAL hundred cricket fans greeted the Irish team at Dublin Airport yesterday but for some, all that mattered was seeing Daddy again.

Eight-year-old Alisha Mooney jumped from the arms of John’s fiancee Helena Grant when he came out of to the arrivals gate with the rest of the team.

Following their big victory over England, chief executive of the Irish Cricket Union Warren Deutrom believes they are better placed to deal with the hype this time then after their 2007 heroics.

“I think we struggled to keep the interests of all those kids who suddenly came to the Easter summer camps the last time,” he said. “Hopefully now, the kids have been watching and excited by it. In the last four years we’ve been working very hard to put in place development officers to capture and keep those kids interested. We’ve worked very hard to make sure we’re attracting as many fixtures as possible against as many top-class nationals as possible.

“There is huge momentum for Irish cricket. It is generating profile we’ve never seen before. We’ve great support from sports councils in the north and south and have worked extremely hard off the pitch to be successful on it.”