Ireland's Inter-Continental Cup victory against the United Arab Emirates on Sunday was not just the players’ opening game of 2008 but it was the first time that Phil Simmons felt he could call the team his own.

And the laidback West Indian is starting to press his own ideas on the squad - and it has been something of a shock to the players.

On the National Coach’s hit-list is a ban on alcohol and fizzy drinks the day before and during a game and the fitness regime is getting tougher.

It may have taken almost a year to implement but no matter who took over as National Coach from Adi Birrell was always going to be on a hiding to nothing.

Just how do you follow a man whose players would have walked on water for him, a coach who had just beaten the fourth best team in the world and, just for good measure, added another Test scalp in his penultimate game.

It’s hardly surprising Simmons was ultra-cautious in his first summer.

"I came in just after the World Cup when everything was on a high. The guys had been playing cricket non-stop for almost four months, so my ideas had to be eased in. Now, for want of a better statement, it is my turn and you have to put things in place which you think will take them to the next level," he said.

"One of the things is fitness, one of them is consumption of alcohol. Premiership teams have a alcohol ban and that seems to work. So it has been proven. it's not just my theory. We have to move in that direction."

Simmons admits there were a few murmurs of discontent at first but his is insistent: "It (the ban) is there now and it's not going to change. The players have adapted well and the training has been good. They have asked questions and they have been answered. They know what it’s for. The guys are willing to learn and improve so they have taken it on board and they have done it."

As for the players’ fitness, it is Simmons’ short-term aim to get a permanent strength and conditioning coach.

"International cricket is hard and the fitter the players are, the easier it will be for them. We have a strength and conditioning coach from SINI (the Sports Institute of Northern Ireland). He has been with us since January and will be with us to the day we leave for Bangladesh. We’ll only be there for a week, playing on three days, so there's not much he can do in such a short period of time there."

"I would like a permanent one but it's going well, the players are fitter than they usually are. They have to be fit to cope with international cricket and we are getting to that stage."

Ireland’s first one-day game of the season will be a day/nighter under the floodlights in the Sheik Zayed Stadium here in Abu Dhabi tomorrow. Three of the UAE team that lost the four day game, including the captain, Saqib Ali, who defied the Ireland bowlers for seven and a half hours, and wicket-keeper Amjad Ali, will be in an Abu Dhabi XI which provides the opposition in one of only two practice (non-cap) games ahead of next week’s one day internationals against Bangladesh.

Because most of the home players will be working tomorrow they have requested a 3pm start, so if the all 100 overs are required it could be an 11 o’clock finish! At least the players will have a 36-hour turn-around before they meet Essex in a 40-over day game in the same stadium on Friday.