Ireland's Triple Crown campaign begins against Wales this morning at the Brymbo club's grounds at Wrexham with the hope that the horrors of the equivalent match last year will not be revisited upon the Irish. Then, Ireland were playing their second match of the tournament and having lost to Scotland the previous day, the side was thrashed at Rathmines by Wales, who romped home by eight wickets.
Ireland went on to lose by 37 runs to England at Malahide, to record a first Triple Crown whitewash. The teams in opposition today are both much changed. Of last year's Ireland side, only Angus Dunlop, Barry Archer, Gordon Cooke and Matt Dwyer remain, while just Ryan Sylvester, Jamie Sylvester, Lyndon Jones and Steve Barwick played for Wales at Rathmines.
This Ireland squad includes two uncapped players - Gus Joyce and Andy White - as well as a new captain. Kyle McCallan took over as captain from the unavailable Dunlop in the rain-affected matches against the MCC at Eglinton last May.
McCallan is a fine player and his experience should help the younger members of the squad, among them Ryan Haire, Adrian McCoubrey and White.
Haire made an excellent undefeated 31 on his international debut in the first match against the MCC, while McCoubrey bowled with admirable pace in the second game, which unfortunately had to be abandoned. McCoubrey seems certain to be in the team proper when coach Ken Rutherford announces it this morning, in the absence of opening bowler Paul Mooney, who is attending a family wedding.
Of course, good performances will also be needed from the more experienced hands, not least among them Dunlop, Dwyer, Archer, Cooke, and Owen Butler. Of the quartet of Welsh survivors from last year's match, Jamie Sylvester did plenty of damage at Rathmines, just as he did in 1993, the first year of the Triple Crown.
Then, after Ireland had beaten England and Scotland, Sylvester scored some 70-odd runs, to play a key role in a Welsh victory which destroyed those Triple Crown aspirations. But yesterday, as coach Ken Rutherford put the players through an intensive three-hour training session at Northop Hall CC, the mood was upbeat.
Meanwhile, Richard McDaid (Limavady) injured his left foot over the weekend and has been replaced by Garry Neely, the Donemana fast bowler. Neely, who has been capped three times, will fly in to join the squad this morning.
IRELAND (from): K McCallan (Cliftonville) capt., B Archer (The Hills), O Butler (Old Belvedere), G Cooke (Brigade), M Dwyer (The Hills), A Dunlop (YMCA), P Gillespie (Strabane), R Haire (North Down), A Joyce (Merrion), A McCoubrey (Ballymena), G Neely (Donemana), A Rutherford (Bready) vice-capt, A White (North Down).
A city court in New Delhi yesterday ordered the arrest of a London-based Indian bookmaker to face trial for his alleged dealings in the South African cricket match-fixing scandal.
Magistrate T R Naval issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against Sanjay Chawla and ordered federal detectives from the Indian finance ministry to produce him in court on September 21st, officials said.
Chawla, the key suspect in the match-fixing scandal which led to the sacking of South African captain Hansie Cronje, was earlier ordered to appear before magistrate Naval on June 5th.
Government prosecutor Subhas Bansal told the court last weekend that Interpol was yet to respond to India's three-month-old request to seek out the fugitive bookmaker in London.
The Indian finance ministry has sought Chawla's return to face questioning in connection with charges that he violated local currency laws to the tune of $400,000 in the match-fixing scandal.
