Eoin Morgan leaves lasting legacy after transforming England into a white-ball powerhouse

It seems strange now, looking back, that he was destined to become England’s greatest limited-overs captain, their white-ball Mike Brearley.

At that specific moment in time, England meant little to Eoin Morgan, on the surface at least.

Aged 20, he had just scored what still remains his highest score in first-class cricket, 209, while playing for Ireland against the UAE in the now defunct Intercontinental Cup in Abu Dhabi.

Strolling to the boundary edge at Zayed Cricket Stadium to discuss it, there was an ice-breaker about rugby.

That weekend, France had beaten Ireland with a last-play try at Croke Park in Dublin, Morgan’s home city, in the Six Nations Championship.

“I was crying,” Morgan said, wryly. “Honestly.” Still, though, they would do England later in the tournament, so at least there was that.

It says much about international cricket’s uneven playing field that Morgan in fact did already have his mind set on playing cricket for England.

Ed Joyce, his compatriot and county teammate, had already done the same, and, he said, he was keen to follow in his footsteps.

Maybe Dublin was not such an unlikely starting point for the player who was the catalyst for England’s great limited-overs transformation. So many stars of English cricket – Tony Grieg, Kevin Pietersen, Allan Lamb – have brought an outsider’s perspective to their work.

After his white-ball revolution reached its zenith with the 2019 World Cup win against New Zealand at Lord’s, Morgan reflected that the side’s diversity had been its strength.

Players in the winning XI had variously been born in Bridgetown, Christchurch, Durban and Dublin, as well as Taunton, Sheffield and Bradford.

He said, in the post-final press conference in the real tennis court behind