‘Four-in-four was like a shock’

Ireland’s Curtis Campher stole the spotlight during the 2021 T20 World Cup when he picked up a double hat-trick against Netherlands. He is playing in the BPL for Chattogram Challengers. The Business Post’s Shams Rahman caught up with the all-rounder to chat.

How are you enjoying BPL?

I have been enjoying my time here. It’s been nice. The people are really good.

Why did you choose to play for Ireland after playing for South Africa at age level?

It wasn’t a distinctive choice in the beginning. I just kind of went over to learn and experience a different culture and a different climate to play cricket. And then when the opportunity arose, I took it with both hands.

About your brilliant achievement – that double hat-trick in the T20 World Cup. How was the feeling?

I was just trying to help the team as much as I could. I was coming back from an injury, so I was not bowling at my best. I was just trying to impact the game. And because of the DRS, it wasn’t fluid, it was not ball after ball. We had the time to talk about strategies. That kind of helped me. It was kind of like a shock. You don’t think about those kinds of self-accolades. It was just nice to help the team by doing what I could.

That has kind of made a reputation that you are a fast-bowling all-rounder. Do you see yourself like that?

I think whenever you have a good performance early in your career that is going to be used as a benchmark. I don’t mind that. Nowadays, all-rounders have to impact with batting, bowling, and fielding. I don’t mind if they label me as a bowling all-rounder.

Ireland are coming to Bangladesh in March-April. How much will your time in BPL help you there?

This is my second time here and I’m already getting to learn and put into place what I learned last time here. Different wickets, different bowlers. Kind of getting acclimatised. I hadn’t played in Sylhet before. I had notes on Dhaka and Chattogram, and it was nice to get a new experience beforehand.

Ireland’s ODI World Cup qualification is hanging in the balance. How do you feel about the 10-team World Cup, considering that Ireland have impressed every time they had the chance?

If you look at the last T20 World Cup, you could see that teams ranked 14-15th can upset the big teams. On any given day, any team can beat anyone. The T20 World Cup is growing, and hopefully, ODI will be next. It’s tough because there are so many games, but hopefully, they can get to a 12-team format with groups of six. That would be a nice touch because it allows us, Scotland, the Dutch, and Zimbabwe chances to play.

Despite having Test status for five years, Ireland will only be playing their fourth Test this April. Do you think that demotivates players from playing red-ball cricket?

Yes, 100%. It’s really hard because there are so few Test matches and so little time. I think we have five in the next 12 months, which is really good for us. I think we got Test status between cycles and then there was Covid-19, so games were hard to organise. But now we have a fair few lined up. Hopefully, we can get used to it because a lot of us have not played much red-ball cricket.