THE overwhelming superior force that Leinster Lightning has shown in the RSA Interpros has taken the competitive edge off the tournament.

But it has helped show up the talent coming up in the province - and give it the winning habit.

The four biggest contributors to Leinster's sweep in the first T20 blitz were the only four yet to win an Ireland cap - Eddie Richardson, Barry McCarthy, Bill Coghlan and Pat Collins.

And Richardson again showed his class last week with five more wickets in Lightning's innings win over the Knights.

"It's been a great step up for me playing for Leinster", Eddie told Inside Edge.

"It's been fantastic playing with Kevvy (O'Brien) and getting a chance to work with TJ (Trent Johnston) has been brilliant.

"I consider myself the same sort of bowler as Trent - not as fast as the other guys but bowling a good line and length, and swing when it's there. He's been working with me on my slower ball which wasn't coming out right. He made a few adjustments and suddenly it's perfect. He's a brilliant coach."

Richardson was in the Ireland underage squads right through his teens, and has seen team-mates like Andrew Balbirnie, James Shannon and Paul Stirling go on to greater things.

And it has frustrated him.

"At this stage I'd rather have a career in county cricket as it seems to be an easier way to get into the Irish team", he admits.

His only English experience so far was a fortnight's trial with Durham six years ago, when he was 16.

At the moment, his only county cricket is for North County, where he has had a fabulous start to the season, scoring 491 runs and taking 15 wickets, behind only Pat Collins on both tables.

On Saturday, against the testing Merrion attack, he made his first century since he made the senior team in 2006. "I used to be scared playing with that team!" he says, "Paul and John (Mooney) weren't the best if you did anything wrong."

But he's not disheartened that Phil Simmons has yet to give him a call-up. "I'll just have to keep scoring runs and taking wickets, though sometimes I think I'd have to make a thousand.

"It's a class Irish squad and hard to get into - but they can't always reject you."

Three bits of good news from the ICC conference at the weekend:

  • the 2015 World T20 qualifier will be held jointly with Scotland;
  • the number of places in the next Women's WT20 has gone up, meaning three spots are available in the Dublin qualifier this month;
  • the requalifying period for moving back to your original Associate has been cut from four years to two, giving hope for those who want to see Boyd Rankin and Eoin Morgan in green again.

Of course, that could also mean Irish players might be more inclined to take a chance with England too…

THE new album from the Duckworth-Lewis Method is out this week, and the band plays a free gig in Tower Records, Dublin, at lunchtime on Wednesday.

‘Sticky Wickets' is a fantastic record, with plenty of the sort of cricket-infested songs that made ‘The Age of Revolution' such a hit four years ago.

The band recorded a hilarious video for their catchy single ‘It's Just Not Cricket' in Merrion's pretty ground, and the actors cricket club, The Theatrical Cavaliers, pulled in a day's work playing themselves.

Henry Blofeld features on the song, and other stars make an appearance elsewhere, including Daniel Radcliffe who once spent a whole afternoon watching Merrion's 3rd XI when he was filming in Dublin.

As David Hepworth of music magazine The Word puts it, "cricket and melodic pop music are two of England's greatest gifts to the world. And it takes a couple of Irishmen to remind us of the fact."

Performance of the week: The Irish women's squad are tuning up nicely for the ICC World T20 qualifiers. Kim Garth made a stunning 153no for Pembroke as they racked up 280. But Melissa Scott-Hayward hit back with 110 and Cecelia Joyce 61no as Merrion chased it successfully.

WITH his English debut last week, Boyd Rankin became the third men to play T20s for two countries. The others being Ed Joyce (England & Ireland 11) and Dirk Nannes (Holland & Australia)

Seven men have played official ODIs for two teams, with Luke Ronchi (Australia & NZ) becoming the latest this summer. The others were Ed Joyce and Eoin Morgan (England & Ireland), Dougie Brown (England & Scotland), Anderson Cummins (West Indies & Canada), Clayton Lambert (West Indies & USA) and Kepler Wessels (Australia & South Africa).

Tweet of the week: "ECB development programme 2003" by @jontycricket. Ian Johnston recalls the Irish debut of Boyd Rankin and Eoin Morgan at Eton, August 20, 2003.