Having received a first round bye, UCC begin the defence of their Intervarsity crown with a home quarter-final against Dublin Business School on Sunday. Following last year’s triumph, Junaid Amin’s side will be hopeful of a strong showing in this year’s edition and will go into the campaign as one of the favourites to take the Trevor West trophy.

Amin, a former Irish Universities player, will lead a formidable team that includes three Cork County 1st team players in the form of Anthony O’Reilly (also an Irish international), Chris Banon and the skipper himself. Qassim Butt, Shahrukh Nawaz and Mohammad Ali bring an explosive edge to the batting department with all three in impressive form early in 2015. Kaleem Ahmad and Denny David performed strongly with the ball during the pre-season and will be hopeful of picking up plenty of DBS wickets while the extra pace of Amin and O’Reilly will make life difficult for the visiting batsmen.

The Leesiders will hope that the familiar surrounds of Curraheen Park will play an advantageous role for them, however DBS will travel South with nothing to lose and as with all cup matches, anything can happen. The Dublin side are something of an unknown quantity, with numerous changes from their last outing in IUCA competition but captain Rohail Hassan will be quietly confident of causing a shock in the real capital. Their record in IUCA competitions indicates that they are a very positive team who like to score runs quickly and if that rings true, the current title holders could find themselves in a spot of bother.

It promises to be another thrilling game in the Intervarsity Championships so if you’re a fan of top quality competitive sport why not visit Curraheen Park on Sunday to support the defending champions in their quest to retain their title. All support would be greatly appreciated!