For England, all is not lost Posted by naila , Friday, March 4, 2011 at 11:20 AM, in Labels: Sports »

“I reckon it would have to be 1,000-1, more like, to be worth it,” says O’Brien himself. “Because I have absolutely no intention of playing for England.”

The suggestion came as a surprise to him, and understandably so. Until Wednesday night, only one member of this Ireland squad had been tipped to emulate Ed Joyce and Eoin Morgan by swapping emerald green for lilywhite.

That was George Dockrell — a precocious slow left-armer who warrants comparison to the young Daniel Vettori. As for O’Brien, there was little apparent interest in a 26-year-old journeyman who had failed to hold down a place at Nottinghamshire in 2009.

But then the O’Brien of 2011 is a very different animal to the one who struggled in county cricket. He proved that point in Bangalore, with a savage beasting of England’s attack. O’Brien’s 50-ball hundred had the sort of punishing simplicity that we are more used to seeing from the giants of world cricket. It had a touch of Graeme Pollock about it, or maybe Clive Lloyd.

A frenzy of interest is already building around O’Brien’s signature. No sooner had the game finished than his agent was emailing a number of counties, looking for a deal for next season.