THE heartening thing about Ireland's so-far-so-good campaign in South Africa is that so many players have played a key role. On many occasions Irish teams relied on one or two star players to perform ? including at the 2005 ICC trophy when Ed Joyce averaged almost 100 in dragging Ireland over the line on more than one occasion.
But this last week there have been several players who, in the words of Phil Simmons, "came to the party".
Its a long time since Scotland were so comprehensively thrashed, with early wickets for Boyd Rankin, a middle-order filleting by Peter Connell, Will Porterfield's electric century and Eoin Morgan thumping 61 off 56 balls.
Porterfield and Gary Wilson were at it again on Thursday with a brisk platform, and after a small wobble Kevin O'Brien (below)?notched his fourth century and Andrew 'The Finisher' White a crucial 71. After Oman went off like a train, it was Kiwi-born left-arm spinner Regan West who stopped them in their tracks with an Ireland best 5-26 from his 10 overs. West had impressed with his 4-11 off nine overs against Afghanistan and 4-21 off 10 v UAE in the warm-up games.
And yesterday against Uganda it was White's career best 10-3-22-4 and 61 from Gary Wilson which have assured Ireland a place in the Super Eight. They play Canada tomorrow in Benoni and Namibia on Wednesday in Witwatersrand, when they will be able to rest players for the task ahead.
A further bonus for a high placing is that the top two teams are likely to play Holland at the end of the Super Eight phase. By then in-form batsman Ryan ten Doeschate will have returned to Essex after he opted for club in the perennial battle with country. Ireland's county contingent of Porterfield, Wilson, O'Brien and Rankin are committed all the way but Eoin Morgan will leave after Ireland have qualified.
BARRY Chambers is one of the great all-rounders of Irish cricket. Besides being PRO of CricketIreland, and editor of the CricketEurope Ireland website, he is a fine photographer of the game. His talents were recently acknowl edged by the European Cricket Council with a Spirit of Cricket Award for a montage of all 10 of Mahaboob Alam's wickets in a qualifier in Jersey last year. The Nepali bowler took 10-12 as Mozambique were dismissed for 19. Another cricketing photographer, Ireland under-13s coach Rob O'Connor, won the Smedias sports photo grapher of the year award last week.
DERMOTT Monteith's A Stone in the Glasshouse is thus far the only memoir published by an Irish cricketer. His fellow spin-twin of the '70s and '80s, Michael Halliday, has recently penned an excellent sporting volume, but his, sadly, is on the subject of golf. Halliday, in tandem with Gavin Caldwell, has written a fascinating history of the Dublin University Golf Society (DUGS) which was recently published by Linden.
While obviously focusing on the smaller ball, there is much to interest fans of cricket and other sports, with characters such as Anthony Traill, JP Mahaffey, Samuel Beckett and, arguably the greatest Irish sportsman of all, James Cecil Parke. From College Courses to Lasting Links is available price 30 euros from www.tcd.ie/library/shop
GOOGLE G-MAIL introduced a new feature last week which means you can now recall an email after you've sent it. Why is this relevant to a cutting-edge cricket column? Well, it has come to our notice that a certain club recently sent the full details of its negotiations with a player agent in error to a top official.
The email had assertions that the lack of a coaching qualification could overcome by "using the one from last year and changing the name"! The official was greatly amused and the club's attempt to sign their pro was summarily rejected.
Had the 'undo send' button been available it might have saved all that bother.