From Down Under to Malahide: ETPL and Waugh Complete an Unexpected Full Circle Moment

When Steve Waugh sat down with Tom McCluskey and Jack Hickey for ten minutes in September, the moment carried a weight that neither could have imagined as boys. As boys, they were imitating his slog-sweep in the backyards of Watsonia North, that quiet pocket of Melbourne's northern suburbs where suburban gardens once doubled as Test grounds. Waugh's decision to invest his time and reputation in growing cricket in Europe, through Amsterdam Flames and the wider ETPL, is exactly the kind of endorsement McCluskey and Hickey believe the region needs. This has also brought their own cricket story full circle in the most unlikely way.

Securing that interview in Malahide felt a world away from the quiet comfort of a January pint in the Gravediggers pub, where this whole journey started, yet the pair have somehow traversed the terrain between both.

Friends since their first year of primary school more than thirty years ago, both eventually drifted to Dublin, steered by Irish partners who happen to share a name, and promptly found themselves navigating the particular ache of an Irish winter deprived of cricket.

As boys, they spent long summer afternoons tooling away at their craft under a baking sun, perfecting imitation Shane Warne wrong'uns or Steve Waugh slog-sweeps. As teenagers, they skipped school to sit in quiet, echoing Melbourne Cricket Ground stands, watching Victorian heroes toil through the Sheffield Shield.

Now, following a New Year's Eve pact made over dark stout to investigate local cricket culture, they find themselves covering the European T20 Premier League, and that pact eventually led them to a name they'd spent a childhood trying to imitate.

"Steve Waugh is interwoven into the fabric of Australian and international cricket. To see someone who could do anything he wants in cricket choose to invest time and energy in growing the game in Europe is an incredible endorsement for the region," they add. "This is also a sign that cricket in this part of the world is valued. We look forward to seeing the ETPL and the Flames' evolution over the coming years and taking that ride with them."

Neither makes bold claims about their footprint on the Irish game. They carry no grand illusions of journalistic status; the ambition is simpler: to chart the European game's growth and observe its progress firsthand.

It remains a way of reaching back toward home, clutching at a thread woven deeply into Australian life, and recapturing something of what it felt like to be twelve years old, padded up for Bundoora United.

Their horizons extend beyond the current tournament. Their digital publication, Substack's 'At Long Off', continues its steady expansion, while plans take shape for a podcast exploring the grassroots and history of Irish cricket. With interviewees lined up across administration, club cricket, and the professional setup, they intend to record the local game through the particular, eager lens of two expatriates tracking a sport that mainstream coverage so often overlooks.

What began as two schoolboys imitating Steve Waugh under a scorching Melbourne sun has evolved into something resembling a joint crusade. Across thirty years of unshakeable brotherhood, McCluskey and Hickey have transformed a boyhood obsession into a vital lifeline for European cricket. Driven by an unbroken pact forged in youth and rekindled over stout in Dublin, they have quietly positioned themselves among the European game's most devoted caretakers.

Through 'At Long Off' and their upcoming podcast, the pair bring a rare mix of Australian instinct and patient storytelling to the Irish landscape, determined not merely to chart the game's progress, but to help carry it forward.