It was November ’05 and Paul Davey was continuing his marathon training program with a sprinting session at  North Sydney Cricket Ground, close to where he was living. The Sligo man was not a cricket fan by any means but was curious when he saw someone with IRELAND on the back of his shirt, teaching cricket.  As he was doing some stretching exercises the ball was hit in his direction and the cricket coach came over to collect it.  Davey ventured “You’re the first Irishman I’ve ever seen playing cricket”. “Well I play for Ireland” responded Niall O’Brien, “and we’ve qualified for the World Cup”. This was news to Davey who wasn’t even aware that Ireland had a cricket team, never mind had qualified for a World Cup.

Despite living a short distance from the Sydney Cricket Ground, Davey had never been to a match in his life. However, having lived in Australia for several years at this point, Davey knew how big the cricket World Cup was. He was intrigued. An amateur film maker, an idea started to take shape…. from a Republican background himself, Davey could see this had all the ingredients of great drama – amateurs versus professionals, Irish Catholics and British Protestants, from either side of the border,  a game that still carried a stigma in many parts of Ireland…..

Sixteen months later, Davey arrived in Jamaica…. game, but still an outsider. On the eve of Ireland’s opening World Cup match with Zimbabwe, with the players sitting around the hotel, Davey asked one of the boys in green...”Are you nervous about tomorrow?” “Ah, not really” came the reply. “ No?” said Davey surprised, “Well… you see.….. I’m the physio”.  A few of the players overheard the exchange and started to laugh and the ice was broken. From then on he was accepted by the team. In fact it was the friendship forged with physio, Iain Knox, which facilitated the capturing of some of the extraordinary scenes on DVD. Knox would take the camera into the dressing room at times where no-one, except for the “inner sanctum” was allowed to go.      No-one including Davey expected Ireland still to be around after the Group stages. Davey’s budget was already blown and he was virtually penniless. Word of his plight reached Waterford man David Hall who was the CEO of Digicell, owned by entrepreneur Denis O’ Brien. “Give me 24 hours” said Hall. A day later, O’Brien called Davey. “I’ll pay for your flights, I’ll give you an allowance towards your accommodation and I’ll give you a free mobile phone”. Davey, extremely grateful, wondered what he could do in return. “I don’t want anything for it” said O’Brien, “It’s a story for Ireland, it’s a story that needs to be told”.    “This is more than a cricket documentary”, explains Davey. “It’s a drama, which I hope will appeal to those with no or little interest in cricket as well as those who do. After all, I’m a film maker…”

Liam Rooney, Editor