Brendan Maher discovers cricket is in his blood in the Toughest Trade

Brendan Maher never expected to get a family history lesson when agreed to be part of The Toughest Trade.

The Tipperary hurler tried his hand at cricket with the Strikers in the Big Bash League in Australia, but as it turns out, he should have been a natural. The Premier County’s captain admits that he had no real interest in the sport before his experience last month, but that the documentary did unearth a unique piece of family history. Maher reveals that before any GAA club existed in his parish of Boris-Ileigh, there was a huge love of cricket in his family.

“Would you believe before there was any GAA club in Boris there was three cricket clubs. There was two inside in Boris-Ileigh and there was one where my mother is from, a place called Fantane, I would have gone to school there myself. "Pat Bracken, he wrote a book ‘Cricket in Tipperary’ I think it was called, where he traced the history of cricket. And it turns out my great grandfather, my mother’s grandfather, Denis Treacy, my played cricket back in the 1800s."

With cricket in the blood, he spent a week in Australia learning how to play a sport he had no previous experience with. Meanwhile, on this side of the world, Steven Harmison, the former English cricketer, togged out for Borris-Ileigh in Maher’s absence in the AIB backed show. Both men’s alternative experiences form the basis for part one of the Toughest Trade which airs tonight on RTE 2 at 9.55pm. The Tipperary captain admits the fun element to cricket, and the relaxed approach to training as well as games, is something the GAA is perhaps missing.

“One of the things I took out of it, I think in most GAA teams training is very serious and everything is like, you can't laugh or you can't smile nearly. And I just noticed that in the warm ups for the training it was all laughing and joking, it was really relaxed and everyone was laughing and I was thinking, 'Maybe we should have that approach a little bit more in the GAA. "

So what will the public make of his efforts? If those cricket clubs were still competing in his parish, would Maher have a chance of making an Irish team?

“It is probably similar to hurling in that it is very technical and technique has a lot to do with it, in terms of batting, so if I had a bit more time, I might have done a bit better. You are only judging it on the amount of time that you had - in the length of time I was there, it is hard to judge. From talking to the lads over there, it's something you need to do from a young age.”

He adjusted to the different sized bat by striking off his left, even though he is right-handed. His grip also had to change, as he went towards a more golf-style, rather than the traditional one hand over the other from hurling. Maher admitted the cultural differences between hurling and cricket were also startling, and there is certainly no such thing as a drinking ban in the Big Bash League.

"They would have a few beers after each game, or even there was a BBQ a few days before the game and they were all there with their coach having the few beers. “There’s no way we’d do this in the GAA. I said, ‘if you had a beer two or three months before a game you’d nearly be lambasted for it."

Maher missed just a week of Tipperary’s preparation for their Allianz Hurling league campaign making the show. However, he arrived into a competitive environment in Adelaide where the Strikers were mid-season. The school-teacher is slightly jealous of the intense nature of the season.

“They couldn’t believe the dedication that’s given and how much we train. I was just kind of going through my typical week and they were saying, ‘you train that much.’ “I was talking about the way we’d only have a Championship game every three or four weeks, or five weeks sometimes. They were saying it’s so much training for little games. The way the big bash is, is a game every five or six days. I’d love that set-up. The season is like eight weeks. They play seven games, a semi-final and final.”

Maher admits his perceptions of the game have changed massively, and he has taken a keen interest if he comes across a match on TV. He sums up his experience by suggesting the mental side of the game is one that hurling fans may not fully appreciate.

“Like, after the first hour of it, I was thinking this is going to be a lot different than I thought it was going to be. The pace they are able to throw the ball, the concentration levels have to be massive especially for the one day, even the test cricket and you are out there for hours like.

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