Hometown boy Mark Adair thrilled as Northern Ireland prepares to host its first men’s Test

Cricket, like rugby union, is played on an all-Ireland basis: there is a single national team which plays as ‘Ireland’ and has representation from both sides of the border. Football stands in clear contrast, with two separate national teams. At the Olympics, some Northern Irish athletes represent Team GB and others represent Team Ireland.

“I’d be a very proud Northern Irishman,” Adair, who will lead the seam attack, tells ESPNcricinfo. National identity and politics are rarely discussed in the dressing room, he explains: “Much like rugby, it’s something that is obviously respected, but not really talked about. There’s no need to talk about it, which is a good thing. But I think it adds to the pride of it for me.

“It’s obviously tricky, because you’ve got a small part of the emerald isle in the UK and the rest of it isn’t. If you start off in Belfast and drive an hour, the next thing you know, the speed limits are in kilometres per hour not miles, and the money is in euros instead of pounds. It’s something we’re all aware of, but it doesn’t really come into play.”

Adair grew up in Holywood, a town just outside Belfast, and lives 10 minutes’ drive from Stormont. “The team hotel is further away than my house,” he says. After recovering from a minor hamstring injury, he could bowl the first ball in the ground’s Test match history on Thursday: “It’s really special for me. It’s something that I grew up never thinking I’d be able to do or have the chance to do… I’d struggle to talk about the significance.”

Phil McCormick, the head groundsman at Stormont, would ask a teenaged Adair for help, having captained him in club cricket. “There would be times when he’d need me to do something and I was too busy getting autographs of the England or Pakistan players,” Adair laughs. “There’s a couple of photos out there of me asking Gary Wilson to sign something for me.

“It’s gone from that, to him preparing a Test match pitch that I’m hopefully going to be playing on… I’ve asked him not to cut it for the last month! He’s put a lot of work in, and fingers crossed, it’s a belter. I’ve probably played more games on this ground than anyone else in the squad… it means the world to me.”

I haven’t yet, but I’m sure I’ll get a text from my dad saying, ‘I need 27 tickets, could you sort that?

Mark Adair is expecting family to come along for the start of the Zimbabwe Test on Thursday

“I love Test cricket and multi-day cricket, and I really hope it’s something that comes back to Irish cricket more regularly,” he says. “Any time that guys don’t try and whack me from ball one, I’m delighted… the skillset that I have is pretty similar [across formats] and I love the idea of being able to bowl longer spells and read batsmen, and try to work them out.”

At 28, he will have the opportunity to play his first home Test in front of his family this week, against a Zimbabwe side who have not played in the format for 17 months. “Our record against them over the last few years is close,” Adair says. “Zimbabwe are a great team for us to play against: they’re well-balanced and will be a good marker of where we’re at.

“I haven’t yet, but I’m sure I’ll get a text from my dad saying, ‘I need 27 tickets, could you sort that?’ But I’m sure there’ll be a full quota of Adairs on the Saturday, and my other half will be down for most of the week… it’s just mad that I’ll be one of the guys on the field, rather than the little kid who’s having to pull the covers on.”