In early 2002, Adi Birrell, Ireland's new cricket coach, addressed the squad at a team meeting. He laid out a route map for how Ireland could become the 11th men's Test-playing nation. It prompted guffaws from some players.
"There was a bit of disbelief," recalls Kyle McCallan, who played with distinction for Ireland from 1996 to 2009. "We had been quite insular - a small-island mentality, a wee bit of inferiority complex."
John Mooney, who had recently broken into the side, remembers that "there were loads of things that we laughed at back in the day".
They had good reason to laugh at Birrell's plans, which will bear fruit today when Ireland play Pakistan at Malahide in their first Test. Ireland's players in 2002 were all amateur. In their futile attempt to qualify for the World Cup a year earlier, they infamously had to use a journalist from The Irish Times as a substitute fielder, and finished below Denmark and the United States. At the time, Ed Joyce was becoming established as the first Irish player to have a long-term county career for 50 years. Ireland had no chief executive or office. When Birrell took over as head coach, he was given a car - and told that the boot doubled as the storeroom for Ireland's kit.
Ireland's Simi Singh bats during a tri-nations series last year.
"There was a bit of disbelief," recalls Kyle McCallan, who played with distinction for Ireland from 1996 to 2009. "We had been quite insular - a small-island mentality, a wee bit of inferiority complex."
John Mooney, who had recently broken into the side, remembers that "there were loads of things that we laughed at back in the day".
Ireland's Simi Singh bats during a tri-nations series last year.
