Richard Bullick talks to former Ireland cricket captain Jason Molins a year on from the World Cup

 

THE first few months of last year should have been the best of times for Jason Molins but instead they were the worst of times.

 

As Irish cricket enjoyed unprecedented prominence thanks to the team’s heroic exploits in their maiden World Cup in the West Indies, one man who had been so central to getting them there was left languishing back home in London rather than being at the heart of the Caribbean carnival.

 

To mix metaphors, having led his men to the promised land, Molins was denied his own place in the sun in one of the cruellest cuts that the sometimes brutal business of sport has ever thrown up.

 

Having captained the team for several seasons en route to qualification, the Dubliner found himself jettisoned completely by the coach Adi Birrell, a man he had worked well with in building the Ireland success story.

 

Even one year on, you couldn’t blame Molins for being bitter about his dashed dreams, but in fact his interest in Irish cricket continues to burn brightly and he hasn’t given up on his own international career even though he hasn’t been selected since the summer of 2005.

 

Jason will be playing club cricket in Dublin (for Leinster) this season to put himself in the shop window and leave new national coach Phil Simmons without the excuse of not being able to monitor his form.

He has the hunger of a 19-year-old craving an opportunity yet Molins would also bring vast international experience and a proven track record of scoring runs at the top of the order against quality opposition. 

 

At 33 – “respectably young for a batsman” – Molins is far from over the hill and although he has never been an athletic type, the player feels that criticisms of his fitness were something of a smokescreen when he was binned by Birrell.

 

“I’ve never naturally been the most mobile player, I’ve a demanding desk job and even the travel time associated with my Irish cricket commitments made it difficult at times,” he admits.

 

“But I worked hard to ensure that I was as fit as I’ve ever been in the year leading up to the World Cup and I wouldn’t accept any accusation that any lack of fitness made me injury-prone.  The likes of Andre Botha and Trent Johnston have had a lot of injuries in the last couple of years too.”

 

As to the theory that he’s a one-dimensional cricketer because he doesn’t bowl and isn’t an asset in the field – although a decent close catcher – Molins makes the point that there have been too many bits and pieces players included in recent times.

 

There certainly has been an obsession with all-rounders at the expense of specialists and we shouldn’t underestimate the contribution Molins made at the top of the order in Ireland’s empowering victories over Surrey, Zimbabwe and the West Indies.

 

The skipper set the tone for his team by going out and confidently crashing the ball around at the start of the innings and his captaincy contribution on and off the field was also significant.

 

“I was reading recently in Duncan Fletcher’s book that a batting captain can be considered an all-rounder based on the fact that in cricket captaincy is a real role in itself.”

 

Birrell worked wonders for Irish cricket but did diminish himself a little in retrospectively attempting to airbrush out the contribution Molins made to the think tank and also his role in leading the team to some significant victories which paved the way for a wonderful World Cup.

 

“That doesn’t bother me much as I’ve never been after public praise and am proud of what we achieved under my captaincy but I suppose some stuff has made me think of him in a different way, which is a pity.

 

“Adi and I had one of the best working relationships I’ve ever experienced and we’d have spoken almost every day during those summers, though the relationship soured very quickly after I was excluded.

 

“I’d say one of his weaknesses was communicating with players he’d had to make difficult decisions about – I knew that in relation to other guys from my time as captain – but it was disappointing.  I argued my case, that I shouldn’t have had anything to prove.”

 

The change came for an Inter Continental Cup double-header in Namibia in the autumn of 2005, a few months after Molins had led Ireland to World Cup qualification, though he’d had to miss the ICC Trophy final defeat to Scotland thanks to the broken shoulder sustained in the semi.

 

“I’d had a lean time with the bat the previous summer but how it happened was that I’d started a new job and hadn’t enough leave to travel with the team to Africa a few days in advance though I’d have got there in time for the game.

 

“Adi wasn’t happy and then phoned to say they hadn’t selected me.  Perhaps he was looking for an opportunity (to leave me out) but I wonder whether it would have been done had I been able to go earlier.

 

“It’s ironic as I’d used all my leave over a number of years to make myself available for Irish cricket commitments and not missed much in spite of being based in London (where he was working as an investment banker).”

 

Birrell’s boys won the InterContinental Cup under Trent Johnston and the Australian – who qualified for Ireland through marriage – kept the job at the following summer.  Molins meanwhile couldn’t break back into the team even as a player in spite of other openers struggling to nail down his old spot.

 

“I could understand initially how it might have made it difficult to have an ex-captain there with Trent finding his feet, but I felt that I did deserve a chance to play,” says Jason, though it become obvious after a while that his face didn’t fit any more and he didn’t get a game all season.

 

Even with the media making his case, Molins missed out on selection for the World Cup squad of 15 – “I still haven’t heard (that) officially and was never notified that I was a nominated reserve” – a scenario he couldn’t have envisaged when Ireland qualified.

 

“That was my main cricketing goal and it was the biggest disappointment I’ve ever had to deal with,” he confesses candidly.  What was the worst moment, when did the heartbreaking reality really hit home?

“I suppose seeing Trent toss before the very first game knowing that was the team I had led is one which sticks in the mind.

 

“I’d attended the opening ceremony of the previous World Cup in South Africa and when Holland arrived in – having qualified ahead of us – I vowed that we would be there next time and ‘we’ were but I wasn’t part of it.

 

“Obviously I wanted the team to do well and Irish cricket do itself proud so I was delighted that they exceeded expectations in getting to the Super Eight phase but that brought home to me just what I was missing and it was very hard to take.

 

“I did take some solace from thinking that the wins we’d had over several seasons had helped lay the foundations and give the guys the self-belief to do what they did.

 

“Being in England probably made it easier emotionally as I could get on with my job and my life, insulated a little from the huge hype back home, though I did hear about that from family and friends.”

He was better being away from it personally, but as someone who had been so involved in trying to take Irish cricket forward both on and off the pitch, Molins took some satisfaction from the fact the sport was finally making headlines.

 

“I watched every Irish game – I’d meet up with other Irish cricketers like John Davy in a pub for a late lunch – as a supporter and wanted them to do well though the fact that the opening partnership didn’t fully fire made me more frustrated in ways as I’d have loved the chance to contribute.”

 

As Ireland were demolishing the Pakistan batting en route to a famous St Patrick’s Day victory, Molins was just another paying punter at a sporting event – the Wales-England rugby match in Cardiff.  It must have felt like a million miles from Jamaica.

 

Ironically, Jason was instrumental in introducing Johnston to the Ireland set-up and insists he would have no problem playing under him now even though, for presentational purposes, he’d prefer not to have an Australian as captain of our national team.

 

As to whether their relationship has been a casualty of circumstances, he points out that “we haven’t had one as such since he took over as I haven’t been involved in the set-up.

 

“The bottom line is that I played for plenty of years without being captain since making my debut in 1995.  First and foremost, I’ve always wanted to play for Ireland and that remains the case – I’ve no intention of officially ‘retiring’ from international cricket as long as I feel that I could contribute.

 

“Irish cricket must make use of the talent available and, if I’m good enough, I should be selected on merit regardless of age or other issues.”

 

Whether Molins makes another appearance in the shamrock sweater remains to be seen but, like Birrell and Johnston, he has had a huge hand in turning Ireland into a serious cricketing country.