Busy July ahead for Irish cricketers
Friday, 26 June 2009 13:25The Irish cricket team will launch the defence of their Intercontinental Cup next week at Eglinton, taking on Kenya, whom they beat in 2005 to claim the first of their three wins in the competition.
The four day game takes place from July 3-6 with play getting under way each day at 11.00am.
Clontarf in Dublin will then host three One-Day Internationals between the two countries, on Thursday 9 July, Saturday 11 and Sunday 12. Action in those games starts at 10:45am. These three 50 overs-a-side games will be known as the RSA Challenge Series, the offical sponsors of the Irish cricket team.
Ireland will announce their squad over the weekend, but Northants Niall O'Brien is unavailable due to an ankle injury picked up during the recent Twenty20 World Cup finals and which is expected to see him out of action for up to six weeks.
A second MRI scan, ordered by his county revealed that the 27 year-old has sustained two Grade Two tears in his ankle ligaments.
O'Brien initially injured himself playing for Ireland in the match against Bangladesh, and further aggravated the ankle injury in the narrow nine run defeat at Lord's against Sri Lanka.
The initial MRI scan failed to spot any ligament damage, and O'Brien played in the game with Pakistan at The Oval, although clearly hampered.
'It's a blow to miss upcoming important games, particularly when I felt in such good form with the bat. It could be anything for up to six weeks, but I'm a quick healer usually, and I'd be optimistic that I'd be back in four."said O'Brien
O'Brien will certainly miss the start of Ireland's Intercontinental Cup defence against Kenya next week, and the three subsequent ODI's. He will hopefully be back in time for the ICup game away at Scotland in the middle of August.
