Photo: INPHO
On Thursday in Dublin “TJ” will captain Ireland against his native Australia at Castle Avenue with the typical determination he faces all the big matches and an eagerness to win - given his competitive streak. Let no one be in any doubt this encounter will be no different either. Or if it is, it will be because he really wants to win this one even more than normal.
Born in Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia, thirty six years ago David Trent Johnston is a right-handed batsman and right-arm fast-medium bowler who has played for Ireland since 2004 – mostly as captain given the New South Wales man is a natural leader.
Before joining Ireland Johnston made his first-class debut for New South Wales in a Sheffield Shield match against Tasmania in March 1999 and then played his only List A match for them in October that year, against Queensland. He also played four Pura Cup matches in 2000.
Trent Johnston first played club cricket in Ireland in 1995 and returned for four more seasons, as he continued playing Sydney Grade Cricket for North Sydney Cricket Club.
He made his debut for Ireland on 5 May 2004 against Surrey in a C & G Trophy match that Ireland won, only their second win against a first-class county. He also played in the next match of the competition against Northamptonshire.
He made his first-class debut for Ireland against the Netherlands in the Intercontinental Cup which was followed by the 2004 European Championship and a first-class match against Scotland.
The main action in 2005 was the 2005 ICC Trophy, hosted in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Johnston was in the Irish squad and they reached the final, losing to Scotland, but still qualifying for the 2007 World Cup.
Johnston was made Irish captain in time for the semi-final of the 2005 Intercontinental Cup against the UAE in Windhoek, Namibia in a match a that was drawn with Ireland qualifying for the final on bonus points. In the final Ireland beat Kenya by six wickets.
The 2007 World Cup provided Johnston with some of the high points in his cricket career, leading his team to a thrilling tie against Zimbabwe and hitting the winning runs against Pakistan to record one of the biggest upsets in cricket history.
He also captained Ireland to a win over Bangladesh in the Super Eight stage of the tournament as Ireland finished eighth in the tournament.
He won his 100th cap in the Aug 2009 One Day International loss to England, when he was named Man of the Match.
On Thursday June 17th Trent Johnston will captain Ireland against Australia led by Ricky Ponting.
Trent Johnston said:
"I wouldn't say just because they haven't played cricket for four or five weeks that they're not going to be up for it because they know that there is a massive banana skin here," said the Australia-born Johnston, who played five first-class matches for New South Wales in 1999-2000.
"When we get out there and execute our plans the way we want to we can be a pretty dangerous team. The last thing they'll want to do is play England after being beaten by Ireland.''
“We're not going to kid ourselves, the 11 guys will have to play the games of their lives to be close to Australia,''
"People didn't give us much chance of beating England last August and we should have beaten them, we lost by three runs. That was quite disappointing.”
"We're going to get out there and give it a go, that's all we can do. If it's not good enough on the day, we know we’ve been beaten by the best team in the world.''
