Ireland internationals join Munster Reds ahead of new cricket season

Campher has been a part of the international set up for the last year, as the former South-Africa U19 player debuted for the Ireland Wolves last February before graduating to the first team in the summer.

Ireland internationals Curtis Campher and Gareth Delany play for the Munster Reds in the upcoming inter-provincial series, it has been announced.

Campher has been a part of the international set up for the last year, as the former South-Africa U19 player debuted for the Ireland Wolves last February before graduating to the first team in the summer.

He exploded onto the scene last July as he scored back-to-back half-centuries in his first two One-Day Internationals for Ireland against England.

Delany, who despite only being 23, has played over 30 times for Ireland in limited-overs cricket and showed his potential hitting five sixes in a 22-ball knock of 44 against the West Indies in the Caribbean last year.

This helped him secure a contract with Leicestershire in England’s T20 Blast Both Campher and Delany both played for Leinster Lightning last season and move south as part of a revamping of the competition which sets out to spread for the international talent around the provinces.

Tyrone Kane, who played in Ireland’s first ever test match against Pakistan in 2018, will also play with Munster in 2021.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Ireland captain Andrew Balbirnie said he was in favour of the revamp to the playing squads.

“I’ve been a huge advocate for it,” Balbirnie said. “We’ve seen a number of players who are from Dublin and have been involved with Leinster not get any inter-pro cricket.

“With all due respect, there are some players who play inter-pro cricket who are not good enough. We need to have the 44 best players playing.”

Leinster have been a dominant force since the inter-pro series was born in 2013, the province have won 16 out of the 20 competitions across the three-day, 50-over and 20-over formats.

The new Inter-Provincial Series for 2021 is set to begin in early May, concluding in September.

Inter-pro 2021 core squads:

Leinster Lightning: George Dockrell (capt), Rory Anders, Andrew Balbirnie, Peter Chase, JJ Garth, Josh Little, Barry McCarthy, Kevin O’Brien, Simi Singh, Jack Tector, Tim Tector, Lorcan Tucker.

Munster Reds: Curtis Campher, Aaron Cawley, Murray Commins, Gareth Delany, Greg Ford, Matt Ford, Fionn Hand, Tyrone Kane, Seamus Lynch, Cormac McLoughlin-Gavin, Neil Rock, Amish Sidhu.

North West Warriors: Andy McBrine (capt), Ross Allen, Stephen Doheny, Shane Getkate, Graham Hume, Graham Kennedy, Nathan McGuire, Conor Olphert, William Porterfield, Boyd Rankin, Will Smale, Craig Young.

Northern Knights: Gary Wilson (capt), Mark Adair, James Cameron-Dow, David Delany, Luke Georgeson, Jeremy Lawlor, Graeme McCarter, James McCollum, Ruhan Pretorius, Paul Stirling, Harry Tector, Ben White.