This night last week, at the end of the first day's play between Ireland and the South African Development team, the atmosphere in the main bar at Castle Avenue was lively and noisy at an unusually early hour. The shouts and the hand-clapping were coming from the members of the national team, who were glued to the TV set and yelling encouragement at their former teammate Ryan Eagleson, who was making his debut for Derbyshire.

It was less than two weeks since Eagleson, first capped in 1995, had played for Ireland in this season's final Triple Crown match against England at Malahide. But, as things turned out, that was to be his last appearance for Ireland this summer as the former Carrickfergus seamer is now contracted to Derbyshire for the remainder of the season.

Of course Eagleson was not the only first-choice player who would be missing for the entire six-match series against the South Africans, the second leg of which starts this morning at Pollock Park in Lurgan. Ed Joyce, having scored an undefeated 88 against Glendermott last Saturday week to earn Merrion a semifinal place in the Royal Liver Irish Senior Cup, immediately departed for England and is to make his English county championship debut with Middlesex this week.

True, many Irish cricketers have played with English county sides down the years, with varying degrees of success, and the recognition of Eagleson's and Joyce's talents may well be an indication that the standard of Irish cricket, at the top representative level at least, is improving. Certainly, the average age of the national side has dropped dramatically in recent times, a welcome change from the days when careers could be measured in decades rather than years.

But it must be said that the current trend of Irish players heading to England is rather alarming and Irish Cricket Union officials are rightly concerned about it. No less a personage than Dermot Monteith, the current ICU president and one of Ireland's greatest-ever cricketers, makes no secret of his worry. Monteith and his colleagues are looking ahead to the International Cricket Council's (ICC) World Cup qualifying tournament in Canada in 2001. Last time around, in Kuala Lumpur, Ireland narrowly failed to qualify, thereby missing the chance to play in the senior global competition and adding to the financial well-being and status of the game in Ireland.

The fear is that the Irish players contracted to English counties may not be released for international duty, which obviously could seriously weaken the national side. The positive steps which have been taken in recent years, such as the appointment of Mike Hendrick as national coach and the development of a more professional attitude among our top players, will mean nothing if Ireland ends up being a nursery for the English game.

We have long been witness to what a similar scenario has done to domestic soccer and only a few years ago rugby seemed inexorably headed in the same direction until the trend was thankfully reversed. Ireland's pool of top young cricketers is far too shallow to sustain even a small drain. Measures to prevent it must be taken sooner, rather than later.

Meantime, to more recent and mundane matters. Having not bothered, as usual, to advertise the South African series of matches (and please don't mention the Jonty Rhodes mini-poster which was to be found only in cricket clubs, preaching, as it were, to the converted), the ICU's written document, entitled Instructions for gatemen, for the weekend one-day internationals, was simply mind-boggling. It began:

"Your function is to ensure that everyone entering the ground either pays the admission charge or is entitled to free admission. Everyone should be challenged. The following only are entitled to free admission:

"Players and match officials/ICU officials and selectors/ICU Associate Members with 1999 (pink) cards/Journalists with press cards/Others with green complimentary tickets issued by the host club/Workers authorised in advance by the host club. Members of the host club must pay unless they fall into one of the above categories.

"A ticket or pass admits only one person. Other occupants of cars should be charged."

All that was missing from a document which read like an excerpt from a Gestapo training manual was a line telling the "gatemen" that they should at once carry out a body-search on all intending spectators.

All the paying customers got for their fiver was a miserable piece of paper listing the players' and umpires' names, but without their Christian names and with absolutely no other information.

This state of affairs is simply not good enough. What other national sporting body fails to promote its major games, never making the slightest attempt to give its sport a wider audience? Changes need to be made.