When Kevin O’Brien was in the middle of breaking the record for the fastest World Cup century back in 2011, he did not betray the slightest hint of nerves.
Facing the same England bowling attack that had just won an away Ashes series? Pah, so what. Playing in front of a TV audience of millions? Does not matter.
The Irishman is generally ice cool, either under a high catch, bowling the death overs with his underrated seamers, or in the throes of a frenzied run chase.
Being a lot on the IPL auction list for the first time this year, though, was enough to bring on the jitters.
“I was watching it on my laptop and was a bit nervous,” O’Brien said. “It is very strange to watch an auction, people or teams bidding for players and people that you know. Hopefully in the future I can watch the IPL auction and will have a different outcome.”
Despite having the sort of six-hitting ability that the IPL craves, the scorer of the fastest World Cup ton went unsold.
It is not difficult to work out why he was overlooked. Playing for Ireland, a nation outside the Test elite, O’Brien gets precious few opportunities to advertise his wares to a significant audience.
Two associate players have been regulars in the IPL. But neither Dirk Nannes nor Ryan ten Doeschate owe their status to the international cricket they played with the Netherlands. Neither even play for the national team any more.
There is a seam of talent going unnoticed and unappreciated on account of the fact they were born in the wrong place.
“I do think franchise owners know what we can do as players, but what works against us is that we are not playing against the biggest teams, and not playing on TV enough,” O’Brien said.
“If we were to play 20 or 25 one-day internationals a year and those games were on TV, I bet one of the associate players would get signed.
“It all comes down to opportunities and we only have those opportunities once every couple of years when we play in World Cups.”
The cricket world is a different place to the one that O’Brien, 30, grew up aspiring to enter.
Back then, he sought a deal with a county side in England to play four-day cricket.
Since his World Cup epiphany, he has earned a variety of short-term deals in Twenty20 cricket.
Yesterday, he was the lone Irishman named in the draft for the Caribbean Premier League and he has also played in Bangladesh’s Premier League.
Everyone wants to be in the league across the border, though. O’Brien says he would – given the hypothetical choice – take a spell in the IPL over a longer-term county contract.
“It is a tough question, because a three-year county contract has financial security, but if you pushed me to answer, I would swap it, yes,” he said.
The fact the IPL franchises have generally not ventured beyond the established markets for their players seems short-sighted.
The NBA, which, in many ways, inspired the creation of the IPL, was enriched by the arrival of the likes of Manu Ginobli, Pau Gasol or Dirk Nowitzki from lesser-regarded basketball nations. Premier League football clubs are savvy to the value of recruiting players such as Junichi Inamato and Park Ji-Sung and expanding the league’s footprint into far-off markets.
Seeing as the international game has struggled to get past its traditional eight nations, the IPL could be the vehicle through which to globalise cricket properly.
There are stars in waiting in the emerging nations, and not just O’Brien.
“Somebody has to be the first to have a contract with a county, or in grade cricket or in the IPL, the Bangladesh league or the Sri Lankan league,” Afghanistan’s coach Kabir Khan has said.
“If the door is open, you can go through it. At the moment the door is shut and we want someone to start to open it.”
Afghanistan and Nepal are the coming nations in cricket in terms of following. Rajasthan Royals invited Shakti Gauchan, the left-arm spinner who excelled during Nepal’s World Twenty20 debut, to train with them last season.
Any franchise would win a nation of new supporters in one fell swoop if they ever signed Paras Khadka, the Nepal captain.
“He could play in a top team,” Pubudu Dassanayke, Nepal’s coach, said of Khadka.
“As it is, he was born in Nepal and Nepal is lucky to have him to carry cricket in the country.”
Tomorrow, Paul Radley asks whether the IPL should expand and launch a franchise in the UAE.
pradley@thenational.ae
Follow our sports coverage on Twitter @SprtNationalUAE
