Thursday March 12, 2009

As with all our recent tournaments, preparation is being seen as the key to success. It was his attention to details or the 1 ‘percenters’ that became Adi Birrell’s trademark, and to be fair to Simmo (Phil Simmons), he’s seen to it that the squad have been prepared as fully as possible.

There’s a new sense of dedication and professionalism not only in Irish cricket, but in all Associates cricket as a whole. For these World Cup Qualifiers, I don’t think the bowlers could have put in any more overs in the nets, and the batsmen have hit more than their fair share of balls. Fitness has taken care of itself really because we’ve been working hard at it basically since we got back from the successful African tour.

The boys are all fit and raring to go to get outdoors and play some cricket. Bready Cricket Club have been outstanding, and they’ve produced some fantastic facilities up there. It’s a great centre and something the whole NW should be very proud of, and it’s been wonderful training there. I think I can speak for the whole squad when I say that everybody is in great physical shape, and the benefit of a strength and conditioning coach has paid dividends.

The games in South Africa come thick and fast, and while it won’t be the extreme heat we’ve experienced in some countries, the fact that we’re playing at altitude with little breaks between games will bring its own problems. With so many of our squad having experienced the last world cup, we know how important fitness can be in those tight and stressful situations.

There’s going to be a lot of pressure fixtures with so much at stake, but we’ve been through it all before, and had some great results and some heartbreak too along the way (Andrew bowled the last over in the famous tied fixture with Zimbabwe in the World Cup). With so many experienced players in the 15, along with the five county guys, we should be able to handle pressure better than most of our peers. We’ve played more cricket than any Associate nation this past few years, and we can draw on that experience gained when battle commences. I’d like to think we’ve all seen it before in our fixtures with the top nations and the English counties.

I mentioned earlier that we’ve been on the wrong side of results, and the World League in Kenya springs to mind, when we lost a succession of tight games. That spurred us on and we learnt from it and added a new sense of resilience to our play which has put us in good stead.

There is always the added pressure of knowing that this may be the last chance for a lot of the players to feature in a World Cup, and I’m sure it will be the same for the other players in our rivals. However, I’m not looking any further forward than the end of April and hopefully qualification for another final. Having tasted the big time with the tournament in the West Indies, I’d obviously love to be part of that type of experience again. There’s going to be a lot of cricket and a lot of tournaments in the interim, and you can’t legislate for what could happen in that period.

You look at the countries taking part, and with just four making it, there’s bound to be some disappointed nations. We’re fully aware that there’s no room for complacency whatsoever, and that although we may go into the competition as one of the favourites, we won’t be taking anything lightly or for granted. We start with a fixture against our fierce rivals Scotland, and a win for either will definitely give them momentum. The composition of the WCQ means that a defeat or two along the way wouldn’t necessarily mean elimination, but we’ll be looking to hit the ground running. If we can get a few wins early on under our belt, the confidence will build and the tournament will look after itself.

I’m really looking forward to the tournament itself, and I reckon there’ll be a lot of good cricket played during the 19 days. There’s a lot of exciting players on view, and I’m happy with the composition of our squad. We’ve got a lot of strength in depth and quite a few potential match winners. We’ve just got to make sure that our big players have more of an impact on the game than the opposition. With our recent track record, I’d like to think teams will be fearing us more than we them. That said, in limited overs cricket it only takes one special performance over as little as ten overs to take a game away, so we’ll definitely not be guilty of over confidence, and be on our guard that the major players in the opposition don’t have as major an impact on the fixtures as they’d like.

As Ireland squads go, it’s the strongest that we’ve had for some time, and with Eoin Morgan back in the reckoning, it’s another extra dimension, with a proven match winner. He hasn’t played for Ireland in a while, and when you think we’ve been winning in his absence, to have him add that extra ingredient to a successful squad, it does give you great optimism and belief to have a player of his quality back.

We depart for South Africa and the Benoni area this weekend, and having been indoors this past 4 months or so, everyone will be delighted at getting outdoors to play and train in the sunshine. I’m sure we’ll be having two sessions a day to get rid of the cobwebs, and we’re due to play 3-4 warm up matches as well. There’s no substitute for being outdoors, and with the ball travelling that bit quicker at altitude, it’ll take a bit of acclimatization, but come April 1st, we’ll be ready.

I often get asked about comparing the various coaches I’ve played under, and they all had their different styles. Phil goes about his task in a very quiet yet assured way. He lets the players express themselves, and he’s always impressing on the guys not to have ‘the fear of failure’. That message has gotten through, and we’ve played a good brand of cricket in recent years that has his mark on it. He’s very good at the technical side of the game, and has a wealth of experience at the highest level of the game. The players enjoy having him around as he is very relaxed and puts everyone at ease. That said, he has a steely side to him, and isn’t afraid to let people know if they aren’t coming up to scratch.

I must say that April 1st can’t come quick enough for me, and our clash with Scotland is sure to be one of the highlights of what could well be one of the most exciting and competitive Associate competitions ever.