CRICKET/News: South African batsman Thinus Fourie has been named in a preliminary 30-man Ireland panel from which the final panel will be chosen for the ICC Trophy competition in July.
Fourie has spent four years qualifying to play for his adopted country and is now one of three South African-born players in the panel, the others being Andre Botha and Ralph Coetzee.
County players Ed Joyce (Middlesex) and Niall O'Brien (Kent) have also been included, though it is not yet clear whether wicketkeeper/batsman O'Brien will be released to play considering Kent will be without their first-choice keeper, Geraint Jones, who is on England duty for much of the season.
The fact he has been included in this panel, though, suggests coach Adi Birrell still harbours hope that the powers that be at Canterbury will let the former Railway Union player turn out for Ireland.
Joyce was given the all-clear last week and is a definite for the first week of the tournament.
He has been in fine early-season form for Middlesex, scoring nearly 300 runs in his first two championship innings.
The panel includes several younger players, including William Porterfield, Andrew Riddles, Kevin O'Brien, Gary Wilson, Greg Thompson and Roger Whelan.
The panel will be reduced to 14 in June ahead of the ICC Trophy, which is being hosted in Ireland. The top five countries in the tournament will qualify for the 2007 ICC World Cup in the West Indies.
Meanwhile, Waringstown's Kyle McCallan is still an uncertainty for Ireland's C&G Trophy match against Yorkshire in Stormont on Tuesday due to injury. He is having intensive physio and will undergo a fitness test in Belfast on Monday.
The Yorkshire squad for that match has been announced and, as expected, England captain Michael Vaughan has been included.
The strong-looking squad also includes Ian Harvey, Matthew Hoggard, Craig White and Anthony McGrath.
IRELAND PANEL: Conor Armstrong, Andre Botha, Jeremy Bray, Ralph Coetzee, Gordon Cooke, Thinus Fourie, Peter Gillespie, Ryan Haire, Mark Hutchinson, Trent Johnston, Dom Joyce, Ed Joyce, Gary Kidd, Kyle McCallan, Adrian McCoubrey, Jason Molins, John Mooney, Paul Mooney, Eoin Morgan, Kevin O'Brien, Niall O'Brien, Stephen Ogilby, William Porterfield, Boyd Rankin, Andrew Riddles, Naseer Shoukat, Greg Thompson, Roger Whelan, Andrew White, Gary Wilson.
YORKSHIRE SQUAD (v Ireland in C&G Trophy, Stormont, Tuesday): M J Wood, I J Harvey, P A Jaques, M J Lumb, A McGrath, C White (captain), R M Pyrah, M P Vaughan, I Dawood (WK), R K J Dawson, T T Bresnan, G J Kruis, M J Hoggard.
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