Paul Stirling, the 36-year-old, has been on the circuit for several years now and is one of the finest cricketers to emerge from Ireland. The right-handed batter continues to go strong and is among the marquee players for the Belfast Wolves in the inaugural edition of the European T20 Premier League (ETPL). But beyond the runs and wickets, the story of the world’s newest league continues to fascinate. The league has its heart in the right place, aiming to promote the game in European countries such as Ireland and the Netherlands.
The six-team tournament is backed by Cricket Ireland, Cricket Scotland and the Royal Dutch Cricket Association, and has received International Cricket Council sanction. It features city-based franchises from Dublin, Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Rotterdam and Amsterdam. The teams’ ownership groups include several prominent former and current international cricketers, such as Steve Waugh, Glenn Maxwell, Chris Gayle, Faf du Plessis, and Rahul Dravid. Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan is among the league’s founding figures.
Stirling’s team, the Belfast Wolves, has Maxwell as one of its co-owners. The ETPL stands out from other leagues because it offers players much more than just an opportunity to prove their skills. Stirling, the right-handed Irish batter, has scored 108 runs in four games so far, and his contributions have been among the reasons behind the team sitting second in the tournament standings.
Hindustan Times Digital recently caught up with Stirling for a wide-ranging interview in which he spoke about the influence ETPL is likely to have on European countries and what it’s like to have an active player as a co-owner. Stirling also shared his opinion on the ICC’s decision to change the ODI World Cup format and how big a moment it was for Irish cricket when Ireland defeated India in the two-match T20I series earlier this year.
Excerpts:
How do you see the reception to the ETPL? Do you think it has started off well, and are people warming up to it?
It’s been brilliant so far. We’ve been very fortunate. We were in the Netherlands for just over two weeks. We had a brilliant reception from our own team, the Belfast Wolves. The management has been superb. It has exceeded my expectations in how smooth it’s been. I think the production has been really good at the ground. The whole setup is good, the ground, the commentators, the venue, everything, and hopefully Dublin can replicate that over the next two weeks. So I think it’s been fantastic. Long may it continue.
Was a tournament like the ETPL the need of the hour to grow the game in the European countries? And is the T20 format the best bet to make cricket a more global game?
If you want to grow the game internationally, then I think yeah. I think Europe’s probably been slower than most to get to this stage. But again, better late than never, and we’re here now. Hopefully, it’s here for the next five years and beyond, which will be Incredible. Make the standard of cricket in Europe better, and hopefully that’ll be sooner rather than later. I think it will be the youngsters, in particular, learning from the experienced overseas players. That’s the real grasp from this tournament so far is that they’ll show those signs of improvement really quickly, way quicker than you’d just be able to do in domestic cricket against your own cricketers.
You can get around T20 cricket anywhere you go. It certainly looks like that’s the direction that cricket is heading in. As long as it involves everyone, it increases participation worldwide. I think it’s a good thing. Lots of franchise leagues around the world, and T20 World Cups every couple of years.
How has it been playing under Maxwell, since he is also one of your team’s owners?
He’s been awesome so far. He’s just full-on. He’s involved in everything as he would be anyway, but he’s a fantastic, fantastic leader. Unbelievable player, very lucky to have him, and he’s running the show, both on the field and off it. So he’s been brilliant. Hopefully, there are a few more big runs from him in the tournament as well, because he’s got his hands full with all those pieces, as you say.
Not many leagues around the world have attracted Indian cricketers, but ETPL has managed to secure Ravichandran Ashwin and Ajinkya Rahane. Rahul Dravid owns one team. Does Indian involvement automatically result in more eyeballs?
Huge support for India worldwide. So yeah, I’d say it definitely does and looking forward to seeing what Dublin has to offer in that respect. Anytime India comes and travels to Ireland, they get a really good reception here. Hopefully, if that’s the idea, that they can come and support guys like that. Ashwin coming in to bowl and bat, supporters turn up to the ground. Ultimately, that’s a great thing. Hopefully, it brings as many eyeballs to the tournament, both on TV and in person, as it can.
Obviously, you were out injured, but what did you make of Ireland beating India earlier this year? How big a moment was it?
One of, if not the best, victories or a series win that we’ve had. It was incredible to watch. We caught India off the hop a little bit straight off the flight, playing in Stormont. They’re not used to such conditions, and we utilised that to our advantage. There were a few lads missing out from injury, which I think was, in hindsight, brilliant because it gave the opportunities to so many more players to come in and show what they’ve got and look there. They’re all now being selected in the ETPL as well and playing loads of cricket, so I think we’ve found a few players, which is incredible. So worked out really. It was a great series win.
Lastly, what did you make of the ICC’s move to change the ODI World Cup format by introducing a Super Series? What implications does it have on associate nations?
It’s disappointing for sure. When you’ve been planning and prepping for a 14-team World Cup for the last three years, or whenever it was announced at the initial board meeting, I suppose you assume it’s going to be that way come the time, so disappointing that they’ve changed it. But it has been two months since the move was announced, so all the teams have got to prepare accordingly and try to get in a different way. Looks like what you said, it’s gonna be three round-robin teams going from the qualifier into that and then into the World Cup main draft.
It’s another hurdle, one that we need to go day by day and take on first and foremost that qualifier coming up in the new year, we’re hopefully gonna find out where that is, which we’re still not entirely sure on yet. But once that comes, I will be able to plan a little better, and for those teams in that welcome qualifier, we know more than most that they’re all brilliant teams. They all have high talent levels, and there’ll be no easy victory. So, to go from there and try to make it right through to losing, two groups of six eventually is the plan, but you can’t look too far ahead.
