Ireland rebuilds but still wants to destroy

Trent Johnston: "I believe we've got the talent and the players to bring the title home again"

A new-look Ireland squad travels to the Netherlands this week for the third staging of the ICC World Cricket League Division 1 (WCL Div. 1) and the other five sides in the tournament will sense that the current undisputed champion of Associate cricket could be there for the taking.

Without the services of county players captain William Porterfield, wicketkeeper Niall O'Brien, opening bowler Boyd Rankin, middle-order batsman Gary Wilson and injured all-rounder Andre Botha, Ireland's selectors have been forced into blooding some new talent for this event.

But if he's worried, stand-in skipper Trent Johnston is not showing it. He sees it as an opportunity for some fringe players to make their mark and stake a claim for a place on the flight to the sub-continent for next year's ICC Cricket World Cup. George Dockrell, Andrew Balbirnie, Andrew Poynter, James Hall, Nigel Jones and others will be chomping at the bit to give coach Phil Simmons sleepless nights as he tries to work out his favourite 11 over the next few months.

"We're probably going through a bit of a rebuilding process at the minute, but I believe we've got the talent and the players to bring the title back to Ireland again," said the vastly experienced Johnston.

"We'll be without our county players and also Andre Botha for the competition, so that's a massive loss. You take out the best wicketkeeper, opening bowler and batsman in Associates cricket, and it's going to hurt any team. But it gives Phil Simmons and the selectors a chance to look at other players ahead of the Cricket World Cup next year.

"Andrew Poynter came in and top-scored against West Indies A on Friday with a great 64, so that's a positive for us when the county players aren't available. It gives the fringe players a chance to claim a spot in the team, and hopefully they'll be hungry to do just that," said Johnston.

Ireland has mixed memories of the previous two editions of the WCL Div. 1. In the inaugural event in 2007, the team was on the wrong side of a number of very exciting finishes and ended up fifth out of six in Nairobi. But in the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier last year, which incorporated WCL Div. 1 and 2, Johnston and company returned to form and lifted the trophy.

"The ICC World Cricket League is very important as it gives us a chance to play teams at our own level in Associates cricket. We've dominated Associates cricket in recent years and we certainly want to continue that. Winning the competition in 2009 was great for us, and we want to continue to send out a message that we're ready to step up," said Johnston.

"Personally, from a captaincy point of view, I'd like for us to do better than we did in Kenya in 2007. The team has progressed from what was probably our nadir, and since then we've done consistently well. To win the title and continue our domination of Associate cricket would be the ultimate goal for me."

As with the other top Associate and Affiliate teams, the WCL is part of Ireland's continued development and preparation for the big one in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka next February. Playing against Full Members is another part of that process and the home team's ODI competitive performance in Dublin last week against world champion Australia was another indication of the strides being made by Cricket Ireland.

"Last week, the defeat to Australia was definitely an opportunity lost. I think a proud defeat was how Ireland would have looked at it 10 years ago but we were disappointed not to win," Johnston said.

"As a team we believed in our ability to push Australia all the way, and I believe we did that for 75 overs of the match. That's the thing about playing big teams, you've got to play and concentrate for 100 overs or they'll punish you. We had a great chance of claiming yet another major scalp, but we let it slide.

"The Australians were here for a week and during that time were positive about how Irish cricket had developed in the past decade. It reinforced our belief and desire to play regularly against the top teams.

"Last week was a great advert for Irish cricket with the game broadcast live in both Ireland and Australia - it can only help portray Ireland in a totally positive light. I thought Cricket Ireland and RSA, our team sponsor, did a super job in hosting the game, and showed Ireland can be a serious player in the global game.

"The ICC have been very supportive of Irish cricket and there's been a lot of initiatives going on behind the scenes with the team that the public might not be aware of. We've had (sports psychologist) Michael Caulfield with us this past week, and he's done a lot of work with the players helping them with their mental preparation for games. Richard Done (ICC's High Performance Manager) has been a wonderful supporter of not only Irish cricket, but all Associate cricket and his hard work is bearing fruit."

Ireland's first match will be against 2007 champion Kenya in Rotterdam and with no easy games in this tournament, a strong start will be essential for the defending champion if it is to harbour hopes of retaining the title.

Ireland squad: Trent Johnston (captain), Alex Cusack, George Dockrell, Phil Eaglestone, Nigel Jones, Rory McCann, John Mooney, Kevin O'Brien, Andrew Poynter, Paul Stirling, Albert van der Merwe, Andrew White, Craig Young, James Hall and Andrew Balbirnie.

Schedule of Ireland's matches

Thursday 1 Jul - v Kenya, VOC Rotterdam

Saturday 3 Jul - v Afghanistan, VOC Rotterdam

Monday 5 Jul - v Scotland, VCC Voorburg

Wednesday 7 Jul - v Canada, VRA Amstelveen

Friday 9 Jul - v Netherlands, VRA Amstelveen

Saturday 10 Jul - Play-off (venue, opponent tbc)

Matches start at 1100 (local time, 0900 GMT)

This captain's interview is one of six which has been sent out in the days leading up to the start of the ICC World Cricket League Division 1. The schedule for those releases is as follows (including those that have been sent out already):

16 Jun - confirmation of all six participating teams

20 Jun - fixtures, venues confirmations and umpire appointments

22 Jun - Scotland

23 Jun - Afghanistan

24 Jun - Kenya

25 Jun - The Netherlands

26 Jun - Canada

27 Jun - Ireland

29 Jun - Tournament preview

30 Jun - Associate and affiliate player rankings release

In addition, there will be further releases that will be sent out before the event gets underway on 1 July.

For more details, please go to www.iccevents.yahoo.com