DUBLIN, April 19: Hardline Protestant cleric Ian Paisley and one-time arch-enemy Martin McGuinness, a former IRA commander, united on Wednesday to congratulate the Irish cricket team on their performance in the World Cup.

Pro-British Paisley and Irish nationalist McGuinness, who are due to begin sharing power in a regional assembly in Northern Ireland next month, hailed ‘a marvellous achievement’ and invited the team to a reception in Belfast.

“Qualifying for the tournament itself was tremendous, but making the Super Eight stage was nothing short of remarkable,” they said in one of their first joint statements since agreeing in March to end decades of enmity between their parties.

World Cup debutants Ireland stunned cricket aficionados with a shock victory over former world champions Pakistan, triggering a new-found national interest in a sport many in the Irish Republic had regarded as a colonial hangover following the country's independence from Britain in 1921.

McGuinness paid particular praise to local players Jeremy Bray, Peter Gillespie, Kyle McCallan and Andrew White, while Paisley singled out the manager, ‘Ulsterman’ Roy Torrens.

At the weekend, Ireland had their first second-stage Super Eights win, dashing Bangladesh's semi-final hopes with a 74-run victory.

They lost their final match by eight wickets to Sri Lanka on Wednesday in Grenada.—Reuters