Ireland Give Ed Joyce Chance To Prove A Point Against Old England Team-Mates

Ed Joyce is ticking the days off until March 2. That is when the Sussex batsman, who played the last of his 17 one-day internationals for England at the World Cup four years ago, will have his chance to prove a point to them, back in the colours of his native Ireland, at this year’s tournament.

The Dubliner was named on Wednesday in Ireland’s squad for the six-week competition, after being cleared to play for the country of his birth again in February.

The 32 year-old is hoping the Irish can emulate their success four years ago, when they reached the Super Eights, beating Bangladesh and Pakistan and tying with Zimbabwe along the way

In that tournament Joyce was playing for England. He had scored heavily for Ireland at ICC Trophy level between 1997 and 2005, and qualified for England on residency grounds in 2006. He had clinched his World Cup selection by playing well in Australia in the one-dayers after the 5-0 Ashes defeat, hitting an excellent an 107 in a 92-run win in Sydney.

He then made 66 against Canada and 75 versus Kenya at the World Cup, although he managed only one run in the match against Ireland.

Averaging 27, with that one hundred and three fifties, the talented left-hander was not picked to play for England again after their disappointing elimination from the Super Eights.

His form in four-day and one-day cricket has been excellent for Sussex since his move from Middlesex at the end of the 2008 season, though, and England should be wary of him.

Ireland’s first game is against Bangladesh in Dhaka on Feb 25. They then face England, India, Holland, South Africa and the West Indies.

“It would be good to get off to a good start against Bangladesh with the nice easy second and third games against England and India following in Bangalore,” Joyce joked.

Ireland’s squad includes nine players who featured in the team who eliminated the Pakistanis last time. Captain William Porterfield, Trent Johnston (the captain back then), the O’Brien brothers Niall and Kevin as well as John Mooney and Andrew White will form the experienced backbone.

“I like the balance of the squad,” said Ireland coach Phil Simmons, the former West Indies opening batsman. “As with most Irish teams of the past few years, there are quite a few all-rounders, and that gives us plenty of options in all departments.

“What is different this time from 2007 is that 13 of the 15 earn their living from cricket – that’s practically a full-time squad.”

Simmons said that the win over Pakistan in Jamaica in 2007 means that the Irish are no longer an unknown quantity.

“We may have lost the surprise factor, but we have earned the respect of the cricketing world through our efforts,” he said. “We’ve reached the Super Eight phase of both the World Cup and the World Twenty20 [in 2009] – there’s no reason why we can’t make the latter stages yet again.”

IRELAND SQUAD FOR CRICKET WORLD CUP 2011: *WTS Porterfield, AC Botha, AR Cusack, †NJ O’Brien, KJ O’Brien, GH Dockrell, DT Johnston, NiG Jones, JF Mooney, WB Rankin, PR Stirling, A van der Merwe, †GC Wilson, AR White, EC Joyce.