Before Alan Lewis became a top international referee he spent 12 years turning out for the Ireland cricket team, writes Johnny Watterson

ALAN LEWIS was a right-handed batsman and right-arm medium pace bowler who played 121 times for the Ireland cricket team between 1984 and 1997, including eight first-class matches against Scotland and 23 List A matches. He captained Ireland on 35 occasions. He is one of only six players to have earned more than 100 caps and is currently an international rugby referee.

"Cricket? I have a passion for cricket. I suppose you could say it was my father's passion (Ian, who also played for Ireland). As soon as I could walk I had a pair of pads on and every Saturday I was brought down to the ground in Cork and at YMCA in Dublin and every long summer's day all I remember is being in and around cricket and cricket grounds, watching, playing, hitting balls, messing with other kids. That's really where I grew to love the game and really I just picked things up as I went along, like kids do.

"Kids have a fantastic facility to learn things by watching and copying how people play. If you watch the Indian players on television now, three or four of them stand the same way, look the same as Sachin Tendulkar does. But largely for me it was down to YM'. That, along with the Mardyke and Cork County, are my two big memories. My father had played for Cork County and there was something about the place, about the scenery around the Mardyke. It struck me as being a pure cricket environment.

"Another thing that sticks in my head as a kid was the late Joey O'Meara coming around to my house with a bat for me. He'd obviously decided I wasn't that bad and he handed me this cricket bat. It was a Basil D'Oliviera. I'll never forget it. I oiled that bat. I brought that bat to bed with me. I was about seven at the time. Sometimes when adults give kids things like that they don't even know the importance of it, what it means.

"We even went to London one time for the whole five days of a game between England and the West Indies at Lords. It was the series where Tony Greig said they we going to make them grovel. My mother had planned to sit in the stand and write letters to friends but she was totally captivated by it as well. I think that once you understand the mechanics of the game and you are there in the ground watching it unfold, it is captivating.

"When I was 14 years old I was playing on the St Andrews senior team and that year we won the Senior Cup. The thing was that we never won it again when I was there. So there I was as a 14-year-old with a Senior Cup medal. On the Irish Schools team we had lots of talent, with guys like Peter O'Reilly, Eamon Masterson and Johnny Garth. We beat Wales by an innings and lost to England by just three or four runs. I think that in Ireland we have a fantastic junior set up but once that finishes for some players it can be like coming back into the mire of club cricket.

"I got my first cap in 1984. Ivan Anderson, who was the leading run scorer at the time, had cried off a match between Ireland and the West Indies in Rathmines and I got called up. I was 20. My memory is that we got pummelled all around the place but my joy was that I was in among the super stars, running, diving around the ground with guys like Courtney Walsh, Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner, Michael Holding. There were some genuine quicks in that bunch.

"As a batsman waiting to go there are always a variety of emotions because you don't know when you are going to be on. I went to sweep a ball, top edged it to Joel Garner and went for nothing. I was disappointed it didn't last longer. And when I think about it, getting out by Larry Gomes doesn't quite have the same cache as Courtney Walsh taking your poles. It was just a bit of inexperience.

"But the fixtures against overseas opposition were the glamour games and I've been lucky enough to play at Lords five times, which is still the greatest thrill, the greatest place you could ever go. I'm a huge fan of Test cricket. The one-day matches don't tickle my beans. As the fella from Civil Service once said the Test matches are like "chess on legs". They swing and sway. There are rear guard actions, attacking actions, psychological warfare. It's such a mentally tough game. I love watching cricket full stop. I could watch it day after day after day.

"Players like Shane Warne, players you would pay to see, who could mentally wear players down. It's like a slow, torturous death. Nagging the umpires, the batsmen and all so skilful. In a Test match there is always something going on and the gap between success or failure is so slight. It could come down to an umpire's decision, a millimetre this way or that. The game is a real measure of character. You've players like Mark Ramprakash, prolific in county cricket but can't deliver at international level and Graeme Hick, who has an average of 34 or so. There's something wrong with that.

"I played for Ireland for 13 years and when we didn't qualify for the 1997 World Cup I retired. At 32, that was pretty early. The rugby refereeing was beginning to pinch and I wasn't one to keep going just to ratchet up caps. Four more years to play in a World Cup at 38? Also that year for the first time we beat professional opposition when we won against Middlesex. I had a simple rule and that was to be in no doubt about the arena you want to be in. So that was it.