It is not often that players are desperate to play in a warm-up game but then it’s not every day that an Ireland player has the chance to appear at the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).

But tomorrow morning (9am BST), that opportunity will come to pass for 11 members of the squad preparing for the T20 World Cup which gets under way next Monday.

Paul Stirling summed it up when the game against Namibia was confirmed last month: ““I don’t normally hold warm-up games in decent regard but if you have the chance to play a game there, even if it is a warm-up game it will be nice.”

The iconic venue, which holds 100,000 people, will actually have no spectators tomorrow – the warm-up matches are all behind closed doors – but it is still sure to be a thrill for the players, on a par with those who played in the Test match at Lord’s three years ago.

Three players are sure to be disappointed but only three, because Craig Young has suffered the biggest disappointment of all, forced to return home after not even playing a practice game, his hip problem which kept him out of much of last summer, cruelly recurring on the eve of the tournament.

The Cricket Ireland statement said: “Whilst we thought we were on top of the issue, it sadly flared up again once we arrived in Sydney and began training.”

He is replaced by Waringstown’s Graham Hume but he only left for Melbourne yesterday so is unlikely to be available to play even in the second warm-up match, at the Junction Oval in Melbourne on Thursday against Sri Lanka.

The Namibia game gives Ireland the chance to avenge the defeat that saw them crash out of last year’s T20 World Cup in UAE but, more importantly, they will just be desperate for some kind of match practice, the last two practice games in Sydney having been rained off without a ball bowled.

For Stirling and Harry Tector, who missed the one game that was played because of their late arrival from the Caribbean Premier League it will be their first game of the tour.

Meanwhile back home, Cliftonville Academy have announced the arrival of Jared Wilson as their new Director of Cricket in their efforts to extend their stay in the Premier League to a third season.

Wilson,last year’s captain of North West champions Newbuildings and a regular in the North West Warriors side, will be involved in coaching at all levels of the club as well as going into primary and second schools in the North Belfast/Jordanstown area.