England coach wary of challenge from Ireland

Cricket Under-19 World CupIt has for many years been the perception if English people look at cricket in Ireland at all, it is directly down their noses and that they take it about as seriously as a Sri Lankan trishaw driver takes the rules of the road.

However, perhaps it's the fact that Irish cricket has never been so buoyant or perhaps it's just that the current English management leave nothing to chance, but it seems the sport in Ireland is no longer viewed by our nearest Test nation as little more than a quaint curiosity.

At Ireland's first group match in the Under-19 World Cup against Zimbabwe in Colombo on Sunday, England coach Andy Pick had sent his technical analyst to tape the game. He presented it to the team last night.

Surely at that meeting neither Pick nor his team would have been quaking in their boots at what they saw. After an encouraging start with the ball and in the field, Ireland's batters threw away a good chance of victory with a collapse worthy of any of the not-so-great England teams of the 1990s.

But off the back of a disastrous under-19 tour of Bangladesh before Christmas - which led to the dropping of three players from the squad and a change in captaincy - and a less-than-emphatic win over Nepal on Monday, Pick has problems of his own and is not about to write Ireland off just yet.

"I don't think we're at the top of our game either at the moment," said the former Nottinghamshire medium-pace bowler. "We had a dodgy spell in Bangladesh and we are not playing particularly consistently. we are not in a position of strong confidence so Ireland's previous result doesn't mean a lot to us."

The impact Eoin Morgan playing at Middlesex has made has clearly not gone unnoticed within the England and Wales Cricket Board and Pick singled the Dubliner out for special mention as someone who is capable of putting Ireland into strong contention of causing an upset.

"We are aware of Eoin Morgan from the stuff he has done at home. We are fully aware of the danger he poses. We know if Eoin plays to his best we are going to find ourselves in trouble."

Ireland will be keen to show people they are capable of competing at this level. They will have to do that today without opening batsman Gareth McKee who injured a finger in a fielding drill.

A win against England may be too much to hope for in Colombo Cricket Club today but a competitive performance is a realistic expectation from an Irish side brimming with potential.

IRELAND UNDER-19 (v England): Eoin Morgan (Middlesex, captain), Fintan McAllister (Rush), Neil Gill (Muckamore), James Hall (Waringstown), Gary Kidd (Waringstown), Niall McDarby (CYM), Andrew Poynter (Middlesex), Richard Stirling (Cliftonville), Gary Wilson (Civil Service), Greg Thompson (Lisburn), David Rankin (Bready). Supersub: Gavin McKenna (North Down).