Top cricketers to attend SA batting camp

Four Ireland international cricketers - Paul Stirling, Kevin O'Brien, Alex Cusack and Gary Wilson - are to attend an ICC batting camp in South Africa next month.

Wilson has just signed a new two year deal with Surrey while O'Brien was one of the stars of Ireland's 2007 Cricket World Cup and is attached to Nottinghamshire.

Australia-born Cusack has impressed with both bat and ball for Ireland since entering the side after the World Cup squad and19-year-old Stirling already has a first-class century to his name and is considered a potential future Ireland star.

Ireland coach Phil Simmons will also go to the camp, which will see players from six top Associate grade sides represented. The camp will take place at the Pretoria High Performance Centre from 16-28 November and is the brainchild of ICC High Performance Manager Richard Done.

It will run by the Dubai based World Cricket Academy and is one of four scheduled over the next 16 months ahead of the 2011 World Cup finals, with the other three due to be held in Dubai.

Simmons expects the camp to be a great success due to the top quality coaching that will be on offer, with Australian legend Rod Marsh among those due to attend.

He said: 'It'll be great to work with coaches of the calibre of Rod Marsh, Dayle Hadlee and Mudassar Nazar. All the coaches from the high performance countries will be in attendance as well, so I'm sure we'll be able to bounce ideas off each other and learn from the experience. I'm certain the players will benefit from being in this environment, and they and Irish cricket will become stronger as a result.'

Stirling is also looking forward to working on strengthening his technique at the camp.

He said: 'It's a wonderful opportunity for myself to develop my game even further, and establish myself in the senior side. The coaches are some of the most experienced and highly rated in world cricket, and I'm hoping they will be able to advise me on various aspects of my batting.

'It will be great to operate in top class facilities, and it is perfect preparation for me ahead of the Under-19 World Cup. I'm sure they will identify any weaknesses in my technique and work on rectifying it. It is an exciting time for Irish cricket, and camps such as these will only improve our game further.'