Cricket ICC TrophyNational coach Adrian Birrell is confident Irish players under contract to English county teams will be released to play for their country in the ICC Trophy, to be held here in July. With several players potentially unavailable for what is the qualifying tournament for the 2007 World Cup, Birrell has been making sure he will have a full squad.
The player whose availability is thought to be most in jeopardy is wicketkeeper/batsman Niall O'Brien, who is on the books at Kent and understudy to Geraint Jones. As Jones will probably spend much of the summer playing for England against the touring Australians, O'Brien could find himself under pressure not to go to Ireland half-way through the season.
The new director of cricket at Kent is former South Africa coach Graham Ford, and Birrell spoke to him recently in relation to the O'Brien situation.
"Graham is a personal friend of mine and he is very positive about Niall's availability for the ICC Trophy. We will do everything we possibly can to get all our county players available," said Birrell.
He was speaking at the official launch of the ICC Trophy in Dublin's Clontarf Cricket Club yesterday morning. The event will be staged at 25 venues around Ireland, beginning with the group games in the north and north-West and finishing up with the knock-out stages in Dublin, with the final on July 13th in Clontarf.
There are two groups of six teams, with the top two teams in each section making it through to the semi-finals. Those four will automatically qualify for the World Cup, to be staged in the West Indies, with the two third-placed teams playing off for the final qualification spot.
The prize for those five, apart from taking on the world's top players on the biggest one-day stage, will come in the form of large financial investment from the ICC as they are welcomed, however briefly, into the inner-circle of cricket's elite.
"Once those five teams have been identified, they will receive special funding in order to progress properly towards the top tier," said ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed yesterday, adding that the ICC would meet next week to discuss exactly how much cash "special funding" would entail.
Before they can enjoy any of that, of course, Ireland must first qualify for the West Indies. Their campaign begins on Friday, July 1st, against Bermuda in Stormont. After that they will face Uganda, the UAE, the US and Denmark.
The other group is made up of Scotland, Oman, Papua New Guinea, Namibia, Canada and reigning champions Holland.
