ON CRICKET:Ireland go into the competition with a stronger squad than was in the Caribbean

THE ALMOST €8,000 bill for excess luggage which Ireland had to pay on their short flight from Belfast City to Birmingham yesterday morning came as quite a shock, even if the International Cricket Council (ICC) will pick up the bill.

Nothing, of course, like the shock Worcestershire’s players and supporters felt last Wednesday afternoon after the county were bowled out for a record one-day low of 58 as Ireland finished off their Friends Provident Trophy campaign with a stunning, 94-run victory at New Road.

The timing and manner of what was just Ireland’s fifth win over a county side in competitive one-day cricket couldn’t have been better for coach Phil Simmons, who just two days previously had watched his attack concede over 300 runs in defeat to Hamsphire at The Rose Bowl.

That they skittled Worcestershire in just 20.3 overs also backed up Simmons’s assertion that Ireland were still capable of beating a county side despite missing four of their English-based professionals.

The performances of Peter Connell and Trent Johnston also proved the merit of Simmons’s decision to give them a rest ahead of the build-up to the Twenty20 World Cup, which begins on Monday week with a clash against Bangladesh at Trent Bridge.

Connell stole the show with five wickets for just 19 runs, all of them taken within just 14 deliveries, while Johnston and Alex Cusack cleaned up the tail with two wickets apiece.

Johnston’s seventh-wicket partnership of 57 with skipper Kyle McCallan was the other vital part of the success, giving the Ireland attack something to bowl at. That their final score of 152 was almost 100 runs too good for Worcestershire shows just how good a bowling and fielding performance it was.

Simmons summed up the optimism in the camp ahead of departure for today’s warm-up game against New Zealand in Derby and subsequent training camp by stating his belief that Ireland are good enough to make it to the Super Eights stage yet again in their second World Cup.

“The win against Worcestershire was exactly what we needed in our last competitive game before the Twenty20,” Simmons told journalists at Stormont. “It was also achieved without our top county players, which says a lot for the depth of the squad. We will, of course, have everyone available and I’ll be very disappointed if we don’t make our mark.

“Obviously our best chance lies in the game against Bangladesh, but the beauty of Twenty20 cricket is its unpredictability. We will be going into the warm-up games and the tournament in confident mood,” he added.

Unlike ludicrous excess- baggage bills, there will be no element of surprise this time around for Ireland. The tie with Zimbabwe and victory over Pakistan in Kingston made Ireland the story of the last World Cup as they qualified for the Super Eights, sending the two Test-playing nations home.

But far from resting on their laurels, they went on to beat Bangladesh in the second stage with their most complete team performance of the competition.

This time around, despite the loss of Eoin Morgan to England, Ireland go into the competition with a stronger squad than travelled to the Caribbean.

The success of skipper William Porterfield, Niall O’Brien and Boyd Rankin in county cricket, added to newcomers from the 2007 campaign in Cusack, Connell, Gary Wilson, Regan West and Paul Stirling, gives Simmons a nice blend of options. And the experience of the 10 survivors from two years ago will be invaluable in the tense heat of tournament play.

With just under two weeks left to fine-tune everything, Ireland look well on course to be in good singing voice when the party begins. The ICC may have a few extra bills to cover yet.

Ireland begin their warm-up campaign ahead of the Twenty20 World Cup this morning when they take on New Zealand at the County Ground in Derby (2pm).

Simmons will have only eight of his 15-man squad available today as five players are taking part in the English Twenty20 Cup with their county sides, while Belfast schoolteachers Kyle McCallan and Andrew White will not join the squad until tomorrow night.

Simmons has brought over four players as cover, including Civil Service North all-rounder Nigel Jones, who is in line to make his Irish debut against the country of his birth.

Reinhardt Strydom, Andrew Poynter and wicketkeeper Fintan McAllister have also travelled. Andre Botha is expected to sit out today due to an ankle injury.

IRELAND(squad for T20 warm-up v New Zealand): A Botha (North County), J Bray (The Hills), P Connell (North Down), A Cusack (The Hills), T Johnston (Railway Union), N Jones (Civil Service North), F McAllister (Malahide, wkts), J Mooney (North County), A Poynter (Clontarf), Paul Stirling (Carrickfergus), R Strydom (YMCA), R West (Civil Service North).