Martin McGuinness.
DEPUTY First Minister and cricket fan Martin McGuinness says he hopes his GAA tweet to Ireland’s cricketers helped them in their sensational four wicket world cup win over West Indies.
Slaughtneil beat Austin Stacks to qualify for the AIB All Ireland Club final and a jubilant McGuinness used their win to urge Ireland to victory..
“I sent out a tweet last night invoking the spirit of Slaughtneil on behalf of the Irish cricket team and it seems to have worked,” said the Derryman on RTE Radio 1.
“I think cricket is a great game and since Ireland has risen to such prominence over the last couple of years I have taken a particular interest in it,” he told John Murray.
“I have to say last night’s performance against one of the world’s greats of cricket, the West Indies, was absolutely tremendous.
“It’s great for William Porterfield the captain and a great innings from Paul Stirling and Niall O’Brien. I watched the Ireland bowling against the West Indies and went to bed then because of work in the morning.
“I got up to find that Ireland overtook the West Indies total of over 300 and that in itself is a fantastic achievement because in this World Cup so far that’s a pretty tough thing to be able to do.
“I never played cricket in my life. I played rounders, that’s the closest I got to it. I am a mad sports fan. My first love is obviously the GAA, I follow the Ireland soccer team. I would support any Ireland team, from playing tiddlywinks to cricket, GAA and soccer.
“We used to take out kids to Gweedore and we would go to the grass part near the beach and play cricket there, I used to be infuriated when a five-year-old would get me out.”
