Ireland head coach Henrich Malan hopes featuring at this year's T20 World Cup will help inspire others 'to go and play a wonderful sport' ahead of opening game against India

Cricket is seen as a minority sport compared to others across both sides of the border, but Malan hopes that there will be more players “upskilled” after they take on India, Canada, USA and Pakistan in Group A of the biennial competition.

The first challenge is against India in New York on Wednesday and Malan knows that if his “players come to the party” they can produce a shock result.

"Hopefully people will switch the telly on and see a successful team and hopefully that will encourage people to go and play a wonderful sport,” he told BBC Sport NI.

Ireland Head Coach Heinrich Malan hopes the sport will grow in the country after this year's T20 World Cup. Credit: Sam Navarro

"We want to try and work across the system and across our pathways so we can try and get those players upskilled and hopefully play for Ireland in years to come.

"When you look at T20 cricket you need maybe one or two players to have a special time out and you can take down any team in the world down.

"India are obviously coming fresh off the IPL and I see they’ve rested a couple of guys in their warm-up stuff.

"[But] T20 cricket has shown up over a fair period of time that if you play a certain way and you have the right intent and players come to the party on the day, that all teams that are going to compete at this competition are equally matched."

Malan, who recently signed a two-year contract extension through to mid-2027, has called on a strong vocal support to help his players against the always-popular India.

Ireland won a tri-series tournament featuring the Netherlands and Scotland but lost by 41 runs to Sri Lanka in their final warm-up match.

"We need everyone there to be honest," he added.

"It doesn’t matter where you play India. We’ve played them at home over the last couple of years and they get people behind them. It will be nice to get some Irish supporters out there and I’m sure we will.

"Hopefully we can play some good cricket over the week that we’re there and catch up with them for a beer afterwards."