While much has been made of the number of North West accents in the Ireland camp in this World Cup, it would be easy to forget that the local Union is well represented off the field as well. Roy Torrens is of course overseeing his final tournament as Team Manager while Barry Chambers continues to excel in his role as Media Manager.

For one man however it looks set to be the experience of a lifetime and that is current CricketIreland Presidet, Joe Doherty.

Having served both the North West and the parent body with great distinction over the past couple of decades Joe is an ideal figurehead to represent Ireland during this tournament.

The first leg of a long journey now complete, he was happy to give a quick update on events so far as Ireland prepare for the main event.

"I arrived in Sydney late on Thursday night, in time to rock up at Coogee Oval the following morning to support the Ireland XI in the friendly organised as the climax to the squad's week long training camp provided by the Randwick Petersham club. The setting is 100 yards from a golden beach of which Donegal would be proud and a similar distance from the team hotel overlooking the ocean - the most idyllic cricket setting imaginable.

The magnificent hospitality and organisational efforts of the home club were rewarded with a deserved victory over our lads - a victory that was likened to Munster's victory over the All Blacks all those years ago. That analogy came from Ireland's ambassador to Australia and New Zealand, Noel White, who generously came down from his Canberra headquarters and spent the whole day with the team, as did the Irish Consul General in Sydney, Jane Connolly.

The disappointment of losing to a club side cannot be glossed over - nor did anyone try to - but two things softened the blow; runs and wickets for North West pair William Porterfield (74) and Craig Young (3-68) combined with welcome game time for Stuart Thompson and Andy McBrine".

"Next up is the official warm-up against Scotland and we moved into Sydney on Saturday to prepare for that. It was when we got there that the news was breaking about Brett Lee joining our squad as an expert bowling coach.

That has given the atmosphere in the camp an extra fillip. We feel that, as well as his undoubted expertise, he will bring a greater awareness of Team Ireland among the Australian public and that can only be good for us in terms of support in the group matches. Thanks also to our new sponsor Tourism Ireland, whose Australia director Diane Butler who came to support the Randwick event as well"

After that of course it is on to New Zealand for the start of the main event and we will be touching base with Joe again as the real business begins next Tuesday.