Ireland's Curtis Campher ready to realise Lord's dream

Ireland all-rounder Curtis Campher will see his dream become a reality when he steps out to play in this week's Test at Lord's.

Campher has already played three Tests for Ireland this year and made a century against Sri Lanka in April but is desperate to feature at the 'Home of Cricket' against England.

The prestige of the four-day fixture has been scrutinised since it was revealed the visitors' star bowler Josh Little would not be involved, while Cricket Ireland's high performance director Richard Holdsworth labelled the second red-ball meeting between the nations as "a special occasion" but not a "pinnacle event".

But Campher said: "Anyone that has played cricket would be lying if they say they don't dream of playing at Lord's.

"It will be an amazing thing to play England in a Test match at Lord's. It is massive and a real historic venue, with all the history behind it.

"To be a part of that is really, really cool and just to be a Test-playing cricketer is a massive thing. To be part of history, no-one can take that away from you.

"Everyone is buzzing for the week of Test cricket."

"It has been an amazing three years."

The journey of Johannesburg-born Campher to this point has been recounted many times with an exchange with his now agent Niall O'Brien during a match in 2018 able to speed up the process of the 24-year-old going on to represent Ireland.

Campher always held an Irish passport, due to his grandmother being from Northern Ireland, and had ambitions to play club cricket during the South African winter months once his studies stopped.

Yet in the summer of 2020, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, he found himself fast-tracked into the senior international set-up and handed his debut in an ODI series against