According to a press release by Cricket Ireland, Jeremy Lawlor has said in an interview that he is looking forward to the Ireland Wolves’ Bangladesh tour. The month-long tour will have the Wolves play eight-match multi format series against Bangladesh A with fixtures starting from February 26th. The 25 year old Welsh-born batting all rounder has represented Glamorgan Cricket Club in first class cricket, had a season with Phoenix in Dublin, and signed with the Carrickfergus for the 2021 season recently. He is a prolific right-handed top-order batsman who can also bowl fast medium pace along with off spin. Speaking before the team’s departure for Bangladesh, Lawlor said: “My grandfather was Irish and grew up in Arklow, so playing for Ireland was something I had thought about for a good few years now. I was looking into playing for the under-19’s at the time – it was something that my coach at the time John Derrick helped me look into – but the qualification criteria back then was different. But when Ireland became a Test nation, the qualification criteria changed and once my time at Glamorgan had finished, I thought there could be a potential opportunity in coming here.” “I’ve been playing cricket since I can remember really as a kid, along with rugby and football. As I got older, I also played a lot of Squash – I found there were huge crossover benefits of playing Squash and batting.” “Cricket then started taking over and I signed my first contract with Glamorgan when I finished school. For any cricketer growing up in Wales, playing for Glamorgan is a huge honour, and also being fortunate enough to play alongside a lot of great mates who I had grown up playing with in the age groups is also something that I hold dear to me when looking back at my time there.” “[Current Head of Physio for Ireland] Mark Rausa was there at Glamorgan at the time – he was a very popular character in the changing rooms, and just goes to show how small the cricket world is at times.” In spite of the pandemic last year, his introduction to Irish cricket was on a positive note : “I really enjoyed my time playing cricket last season, to get any cricket in at all was a result within itself considering the situation we were in with Covid and the lockdowns. I owe a big thank you to Phoenix for helping me get over and settled here, as well as Ted Williamson and the Munster Reds for allowing me to play for them.” “Obviously I was extremely delighted to get the call up for this tour – we had been training for the past few months so knew that there would be a chance of getting on the trip, but when I got told it officially from Andrew White it was a great feeling.” Lawlor is happy to progress with his bowling, however he believes batting is his main attribute: “My main role is being a batter. I can bowl a little bit, but it’s not my main string and have also had a couple of injuries with it along the way, but it’s definitely something I want to continue working on.” Talking about the downtime in the bio-bubble he said, “This is my longest period away with a team, albeit I have done a couple seasons as an overseas player in Australia and had a few trips with Glamorgan. The downtime in the bio-bubble won’t be a problem – I quite enjoy Netflix, am a big fan of a good crime thriller and documentaries. I also have an Investment Management exam in a couple of months’ time, so hopefully I can get my teeth into some of that in the downtime we have.”