Skibbereen Cricket Club is on the rise

Forget the Ashes, Skibbereen Cricket Club got its hands on the prize that really matters

THE town made famous by its footballers, rowers and rugby players now has another sport to put it on the map: cricket.

Skibbereen Cricket Club (SCC) recently won the Macroom Premier League Cricket Tournament hosted by the Macroom Cricket Association.

This was a seven-a-side competition with a maximum of six overs per innings. SCC defeated the BD (Bangladesh Boys) cricket team from Cork city by six wickets in the quarter-final and qualified for the semi-final. Skibbereen then outplayed Macroom in their last-four game and recorded the highest score of the tournament. All eyes were now on the final between Skibb and the Cork City team. Cork managed to get a total of 42 runs in six overs with four wickets. SCC therefore required 43 runs to win. They batted with great composure to win the match by six wickets with 20 balls to spare.

It was a marvellous achievement for the Skibbereen-based club, and player Shibu Cherian was delighted.

‘We’ve been playing cricket in a small area for the last few years but we didn’t have enough players to set-up a team and play in tournaments. This year a couple of guys from Bantry joined us,’ explained Cherian, who has lived in Skibbereen since the summer of 2015, while he works at Skibbereen Residential Care Centre.

Skibbereen Cricket Club completed the epic run chase in the final to beat City Boys Cork to win the Macroom Cricket Premier League. Pictured are Libin Luke, Rahul R Nair, Manjith Mohan, Shibu Cherian, Rens Mani, Pratheesh Cherian, Libin Menachery, Dibin Divakaran and Aybin Alichan .

A famous sporting club in Skibbereen town is playing its part in the cricket team’s story, too.  Cherian and his teammates play on a pitch at Skibbereen Rugby Club, and this was a big step forward.

‘We asked Skibbereen Rugby Club if they could give us space to play cricket and they gave us one of their grounds near the main road in between two roundabouts. The rugby club gave us permission to train there and we’ve been there since the start of this summer,’ Cherian explained.

The recent tournament in Macroom provided the ideal opportunity for the club to develop and show its qualities.

‘We then came to know about Macroom Cricket Association hosting a tournament. We thought we would also try that. Usually each cricket team would have 11 players in the team but in this event it was seven people in the team. There were 16 teams from other small towns around Cork,’ Cherian added.

Now Skibbereen Cricket Club has won a trophy, it’s time to take the next step.

‘We are hoping to get support from the council to get space for playing cricket. A couple of years back, somebody from the secondary school asked to introduce the students to play cricket. At that time, we didn’t have enough space. People from the school in Skibbereen have watched us recently too and they are showing an interest. They asked us if we could train the students from the secondary school. We just need some support from the council to progress,’ said Cherian, who would love to see locals get involved.

‘We have talented players in the club. They are from different parts of India. In the future, hopefully we can entice the people in our locality to join and we could become a better team.’

He added: ‘There is a tournament in August. Depending on numbers, we are intending on participating in that competition, being held in Dublin. There will be more teams in that tournament from different parts of the country.’

If you are interested in joining Skibbereen Cricket Club or would like to find out more information, contact Shibu Cherian (089-4733072) or Pratheesh Cherian (089-4433887).