Barbara McDonald

Barbara Mary McDonald (born 28 May 1972) is an Irish former cricketer who played as a right-arm pace bowler. She appeared in one Test match and 57 One Day Internationals (ODIs) for Ireland between 1993 and 2005, including appearing at the 1993, 1997, 2000, and 2005 World Cups.

McDonald was born in Waterford, but played her club cricket for Malahide, in County Dublin. She made her Irish senior debut at the age of 21, playing twice in the 1993 World Cup in England, against the Netherlands and the West Indies. Within a few years, she had established herself as one of Ireland's opening bowlers, notably taking 2/40 and 3/17 in consecutive matches against the touring South Africans during the 1997 season. At the 1997 World Cup in India, McDonald took five wickets from five matches, behind only Catherine O'Neill for Ireland. Her best performance came in the game against Denmark that secured her team's place in the quarter-finals, when she took 3/12 from five overs.

In July 2000, Pakistan visited Ireland to play five ODIs and a single Test match, the latter of which was Ireland's first and only appearance at that level. In the third ODI, McDonald took career-best figures of 4/8 from 6.4 overs, including the last four wickets to fall. She continued her good form when the Test began the next day, taking the first three Pakistani wickets to fall and finishing with figures of 3/9 from 12 overs. She added 1/19 in the second innings as her team won by an innings and 54 runs. However, at the World Cup in New Zealand later in the year, McDonald had less success, taking only three wickets from seven matches. Her five matches had yielded 11 wickets at an average of only 5.54, which included figures of 4/13 against the West Indies, 3/10 against Japan, and 2/13 against the Netherlands. She played her final international matches later in the year, at the 2005 edition of the European Championship.