CRICKET: Andy McBrine fully committed to Donemana

Andy McBrine had the chance to leave Donemana this summer, but he decided to against it and cant wait for the 2016 campaign to get underway.

Ireland all-rounder Andy McBrine was believed to have had a serious offer to leave his beloved Donemana and join NCU kingpins CIYMS, but he has decided to stay with the Holm men.

“I’m fully committed to Donemana, at the end of the day it has always been Donemana my club, so I have stuck by them again for another season or I might never leave, who’s too know,” he said.

“It was a tempting offer and I was sort of caught in two minds whether to go or not, but I don’t know how I would adapt to it, because at Donemana I have 11 mates playing with me every week and I enjoy the craic with them so while the offer was definitely tempting and it would have been a new challenge but I have made my mind up and now I’m concentrating on trying to do well for Donemana and hopefully in September we’ll have a few trophies in the cabinet.”

Donemana had added a few not so new faces to their squad with Andrew Riddle and Dwanye McGarrigle back in the fold and McBrine is keeping his fingers crossed that the brothers Gary and William McClintock can have a big 2016.

“Hopefully the younger players can keep improving, we have a new captain in Ricky Lee Dougherty. All the lads are working really hard and they are determined.

“The two twins had a very good U19 World Cup campaign and they will gain lots of experience from that, so hopefully they can now push on and hopefully they can push on with that little bit more experience this season and that will help them towards us in our league campaign.

“We have Andy Riddles back, which is a really big boost to us. Aggie is a determined guy who never gives up and always relishes whatever challenge is put in front of him, so he’ll give the squad a boost.

“Another man who is back is Dwayne McGarrigle, who has made himself available this season, so that’s like a new signing for us because he has been missing the last couple of year. As everyone knows Dwayne is a dangerous man coming into the last 10 overs and he could change the game for us.

“Jan (Frylinck) is back and hopefully he’ll capitalize on his year’s experience from last year. As we saw in the last game of the season in the Senior Cup final he can also bat as well as bowl, so hopefully he can push on.”

Although it’s a few weeks away yet, McBrine and Co start their quest of trying to win the Bank of Ireland Senior Cup for an incredibly fifth time in a row when they host Ardmore next month.

“We have a tough match first up against Ardmore at home, but we all know that it’s a cup match so anything can happen, but if we can get past Ardmore we’ll only be taking it one game at a time,” he added.

“Hopefully if we do get past Ardmore we can get a few more home draws and we know that we need to win four matches and we are in the final, but as I said we’ll be taking one game at time, starting with a tough one against Ardmore but hopefully the results will go our way.

“Hopefully this year we can get our fifth Senior Cup in a row and then maybe push on to try and win the league. We also want to do well in the other cup competitions.”

It has been a busy off season for the 22-year-old and a few of his North West Warriors team-mates apart from the McClintock twins playing in the U19 World Cup, McBrine along with Craig Young and Stuart Thompson, were part of Ireland’s T20 World Cup squad, which disappointingly were unable to win a match in India.

John Bracewell’s side lost to Oman and Holland and their game against Bangladesh was washed out, meaning they failed to reach the Super 10 stage,

“We had a busy winter away with Ireland on tours and obviously the T20 World Cup in India,” he added.

“It was a disappointing T20, we were always fighting for that top spot, but things just didn’t happen.

“We have to move on now and personally I have done OK and played in the majority of games, which is quite pleasing, but I know if you get your opportunity then you have to take it with both hands and try to help the team out as much as you can whether that’s with bat, ball or fielding.

“We have five players from the North West in the squad, three from the area myself, Craig (Young) and Stuarty (Thompson) and we have the two McClintock’s (Gary and William), who if they keep improving then there’s no reason why they can’t be there may be in a couple of years’ time.

“They definitely have  the talent and there’s a few other boys in the North West at underage level who have the talent.”