The future is another country for Joyce

CRICKET/Profile of Ed Joyce: Ed Joyce is quite a peculiar sort of Irish sports star. For one thing, he is not very well known. In the relatively close-knit world of Irish cricket he is something of a god in the mould of a Brian O'Driscoll or Damian Duff but for much of the rest of the country it would be a case of "Ed who?" Perhaps even more peculiarly, he is an Irish sports star whose next main ambition is to play for England.

But a sports star he certainly is. In the last four or five seasons, he has established himself as one of the top batsmen in the English County Championship, clocking up 5,000 runs at an average of almost 48, when anything over 40 is considered outstanding.

This season, his is the wicket prized more than any other by opponents of a Middlesex team who probably have the strongest batting line-up in the country, including full England players like Andrew Strauss and Owais Shah.

He was the first player to reach the milestone of 1,000 runs this year, an achievement akin to Robbie Keane being top-scorer in the Premiership or Padraig Harrington leading the European Order of Merit. In the recent ICC Trophy, he scored at the phenomenal average of almost 100 runs per innings and was hugely influential in securing Ireland's place in the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies. Whenever a side did get him out - and it didn't happen very often - their squeals of delight could be heard in the next parish.

But the irony of that legendary performance is that if Joyce is picked to the play in that World Cup, it will most likely be for England and not the country he helped to get there. But before then, he wants to play Test cricket for England.

It takes some explaining. For someone to play Test cricket, they need to be in a team that is a full member of the International Cricket Council (ICC).

At present, Ireland are associate members and while they are certainly in the top two or three associate members and improving all the time, there is no question of Ireland playing Test cricket any time soon. By that stage, Dublin will have hosted the Olympics, Shamrock Rovers will be in the Champions League final and the captain of Carlow will be lifting the Sam Maguire Cup.

So while it might seem strange at first, Joyce's desire to play Test cricket and find out just how his technique and mental strength will hold up under pressure at the highest level, means he has declared for England.

"I've had to explain it to a few people," said Joyce (26). "But I think people generally see it for what it is. I was interviewed on a radio show and apparently afterwards people were texting in saying I was very unpatriotic and that I shouldn't want to play for England and all that kind of stuff. But I think if they knew the situation, there wouldn't be a problem."

Not that he is there yet, of course. Joyce qualified to play for England on July 1st having satisfied the four-year residency criterion. He was immediately contacted by David Graveney, the England chairman of selectors, to make sure of his eligibility but Joyce has heard nothing since. Perhaps he wants to play down his chances publicly or just not get his hopes up, but Joyce says he is unlikely to get a call-up this year, certainly not before the Australians head home in September.

"I personally don't think so. I was playing golf today with (England's opening batsman) Andrew Strauss and he didn't really talk about it. I think he would have mentioned it if my name was being bandied about," he said, adding that he thought Kent's Robert Key was ahead of him in the minds of selectors, also Paul Collingwood of Durham and possibly others.

"Don't get me wrong there is definitely a possibility there but I think they'll stick with the team they've got, and I think they should stick with that team.

"Hopefully I'll get into the academy and maybe get an A tour over the winter," he said, although most pundits believe that he will be selected for the full England tour to Pakistan later this year.

"It depends on how many they take. If they were going to take 18 or 20 I think I would be but if they only take 15 or 16, with extra bowlers, I don't think I would, no. It's a possibility. Hopefully."

If he was to play Test cricket, he would be the 10th Irish-born player to do so. Five others have played for England, two for Australia and two for South Africa. The last one was Martin McCague who played three times for England in 1993 and '94. Unlike Joyce, however, while McCague was born in Larne, Co Antrim, he was brought up and learned his cricket in Australia.

Joyce would be the first born-and-bred Irishman to play Test cricket since the late 19th century.

Whatever about his desire to wear the three lions on his chest, there is no question over Joyce's Irishness. He was born and brought up in a family of nine children in Bray, Co Wicklow to a father, Jimmy, from the Liberties and a mother, Maureen, from Cork. His parents' background was probably more rooted in GAA than MCC but Jimmy had a fascination for the game and passed it on to his children.

Ed's elder brother Damian was his first and possibly most influential batting coach and those Joyce cricket matches played in the back garden were some of the hardest fought of his career. There was certainly no lack of talent. Two of Ed's brothers, Dominick and Gus, and two of his sisters, Isobel and Cecelia, have played cricket for Ireland. At an early age, he played with his brothers for Bray Cricket Club, which his father and uncle founded, and briefly played for North Wicklow Cricket Club before moving to senior club Merrion on Dublin's Anglesea Road.

One of the first teams to suffer at the hands of Ed Joyce were YMCA 3rd XI in 1990. At the age of 13, Joyce strode confidently out to bat in YM's then second ground at Wanderers RFC. The bat he carried was nearly as big as he was and the YM players thought they had little to fear from this callow and pint-sized left-hander with his mop of unruly brown hair.

He scored a chanceless century that day - his first - and despite playing against men twice his size, it was clear he was in a different class.

Having established himself on Merrion's first team by the age of 16, Joyce was selected on various representative sides at underage level, scoring centuries at schools and under-19 levels. He also played for Dublin University when the time came but not before he had made his full international debut in 1997, against Scotland at the age of 18, scoring a high-class 60. It was then he was offered a trial with Middlesex.

"I played one game (for the second team), didn't do particularly well, didn't enjoy it and didn't play again until two years later," he said. "I didn't get a good vibe off it. I didn't really think I was good enough. I didn't think the guys were very nice at the time and the atmosphere wasn't great at Middlesex. They weren't doing very well.

"But they kept badgering me so two years later I just said I might as well shut them up by going back over. And I did well."

That was six years ago and in that time a new generation of young Middlesex cricketers, with Joyce at the forefront, has turned the county back into one of the strongest in England.

"I love it. You do get tired and like any job there are days when you don't want to get up and go to it. But then you think about and it's ridiculous. It's a good life and it can't really get any better. Sport gives you natural ups and downs."

Mind you, this year there has been more in the way of ups for Joyce leading such respected and knowledgeable observers as Shane Warne, Mike Gatting and David Lloyd to predict big things for him.

"It's been pretty unbelievable really this season. I just seem to be scoring runs every time I go to the crease. It's a confidence thing - you don't think you're going to get out so generally you don't."

But despite scoring hundreds at Lord's and getting into the heads of England selectors, his most satisfying innings was in Belfast against Bermuda for Ireland in the ICC Trophy earlier this month.

"I felt much more nervous playing that than any game playing for Middlesex. Getting the hundred there took the pressure off me."

He ended up scoring almost 400 runs in five innings, including 81 in the final against Scotland, probably his last game for his country.

"It's sad but I had got over it before because I hadn't played for Ireland for four years before the ICC Trophy. It was just good to play with the lads again and great to see them get through to the World Cup," he said, adding that they probably need another couple of quick bowlers to cause the top sides any troubles in the West Indies.

He mentioned young bowlers Boyd Rankin, who is currently on the staff at Lord's, and Railway Union's Roger Whelan.

"Even if I don't get picked for England or get to go with Ireland, I will be out there at the World Cup supporting anyway. I will be there hopefully to follow Ireland to the final and if not, I'll follow England," he said.

Mind you, such has been his impact across the Irish Sea that English people have now started following him. Ed Joyce is already better known in his adopted country than at home and he now looks ready for the highest challenge the game can offer by pulling on the sweater of a Test nation. Only the most churlish could grumble that that nation is not his own.

Born: September 22, 1978

Height: 5fit 11ins

School: Presentation Bray, where his first sport was rugby. He played in the junior cup but a broken jaw kept him out of the SCT.

Clubs: Bray, Merrion, Coburg (Melbourne), Dublin University, Middlesex

Family: One of nine children. Brothers Gus and Dom have played for Ireland, as have his sisters Isobel and Cecelia. His father Jimmy is honorary treasurer of the Leinster Cricket Union and mother Maureen is official scorer for Merrion first team.

Awards: Won the 2000 Denis Compton Award in Middlesex for most promising young player.

First-class record: 71 matches, 4,988 runs at an average of 47.96, 13 centuries including a highest score of 192 earlier this year.

Although not used much as a bowler, he has taken eight first-class wickets as a medium pacer.

Highest score for Ireland is 115 not out against UAE in this year's ICC Trophy, in which he averaged almost 100.