Ireland's Mary T20 World Cup's oldest player: played international football

Mary Waldron of Ireland always wanted to play in the World Cup for the country. Mary is 38 years old and is the oldest player in the ongoing Women's T20 World Cup in South Africa. She is one of the four selected players who have played in the Women's T20 World Cup at the age of more than 38 years. This is Mary's fourth T20 World Cup, playing as a wicketkeeper for Ireland.
However, he never thought that his dream of playing the World Cup for the country would be fulfilled in cricket. Mary has been associated with sports since her school days. At the age of 12, she used to participate in sports as an organizer and during this time she also tried her hands at football, hockey and basketball. At the age of 13, he got a place in the Ireland under-16 football team, from where his professional career started.
Mary says that initially, she hated cricket. When his father used to watch cricket on TV, he could not understand anything. However, a cricket-loving friend of his invited him to watch club cricket. Mary enjoyed it so she joined a local club. During this time, when a wicketkeeper was not present in the club, he took this responsibility and it was from here that Ireland got the most capped player.
Mary's talent was spotted by Ireland A coach while keeping wicket for the club, following which she made her debut for the national team in 2010. Mary tells that until then football was a priority somewhere in her mind, but due to lack of time, she had to choose one sport. So when Ireland qualified for the 2014 T20 World Cup, he quit football.
After all, he had to play the World Cup for the country. In 2015, former Australia wicketkeeper Julia Pryce sent Mary an invitation to join club team Hobart. Mary went there and completed the Level-1 course of umpiring while playing. After this, whenever Mary got free time from the national team, she would reach Australia to play and umpire.
In 2018, Mary was appointed to Ireland's first-class panel of umpires, becoming the first female umpire to officiate in a men's List A match. Mary has also umpired in T20 World Cup qualifier matches and Big Bash.