Australia to provide tough test for Irish

Today, the first of the three-day match against a formidable Australia A team at Rathmines, marks the wind-down of what has been the busiest season for Ireland's national team of weekend, amateur cricketers.

Weather always permitting (remember the visit of Bangladesh back in June?), Angus Dunlop and his men will subsequently take on the tourists in five one-day matches next week, at Castle Avenue, Waringstown, Downpatrick and Beechgrove to bring the curtain down on a hectic representative programme.

Ireland will be strengthened by the presence of the redoubtable Steve Waugh, hardly the kind of man to give his compatriots a soft time of it. And, given that Australia A's coach is Allan Border, and that the former captain is also a Test selector, these tourists most definitely are not here for the craic.

These are all certain to be noholds-barred, hard-fought competitive matches. Against this likely background, it's unfortunate that three changes have been forced upon the selectors, due to injuries suffered by Derek Heasley, John Davy and Ryan Eagleson, all key players in Ireland's attack. Their places will be taken by Paul Mooney (The Hills), Gordon Cooke (Limavady) and the Bready opening batsman, Mark Olphert.

Australia A includes six Test players in the 13-man squad - Matthew Hayden, Brendon Julian, Jason Gillespie, Damien Martyn, Andrew Bichel and Adam Dale. The only survivors of the Ireland team which lost by 139 runs in last year's one-day match at Beechgrove are Ed Joyce, Kyle McCallan and Cooke.

Play over each of the three days at Rathmines will be from 11.30 to 6.30, with 20 overs from 5.30 on Saturday; admission is £5, youths and OAPs £2, under 12s can get in free.

IRELAND: A Dunlop (YMCA, capt), J Bushe (Waringstown), G Cooke (Limavady), M Dwyer (The Hills), E Joyce (Merrion), K McCallan (Cliftonville), J Molins (Carlisle), P Mooney (The Hills), M Olphert (Bready), S Smyth (Brigade), S Waugh (Australia).

AUSTRALIA A (from): M D Venuto (Tasmania, capt), M Hayden (Queensland, vice-capt), A Bichel (Queensland), R Campbell (Western Australia) wkt-kpr, A Dale (Queensland), J Gil- lespie (South Australia), D Hills (Tasmania), M Hussey, B Julian, D Martyn (all Western Australia), C Miller (Tasmania), A Symonds (Queenslan), B Young (South Australia).

UMPIRES: S Daultrey, L Keegan.