Brendan O'Brien: New seeds thriving on old ground as cricket takes root again in Kilkenny

The hope is that more hurlers can be attracted given the county’s trademark pastime

NEW SEEDS: Members of Kilkenny Cricket Club look on during their Division 8 league game against Tyrrelstown at Castle Blunden last Saturday

Patrick Blunden knows. He sees that it’s nigh on impossible to stand in the idyllic grounds of Castle Blunden in rural Kilkenny as a game of cricket unfolds before your eyes and not think of Kevin Costner’s farmer who cleared a huge swathe of his Iowa cornfield to build a baseball diamond in the film ‘Field of Dreams’.

“There is a touch of ‘build it and they will come’ about it,” he chuckles.