Warriors’ trio part of Ireland T20 World Cup journey

The Ireland men’s senior squad departs for Australia today ahead of the upcoming T20 World Cup with North West Warriors players Stephen Doheny, Conor Olphert and Craig Young taking their place in the 15-man panel.

It looks set to be a busy schedule for Andrew Balbirnie’s side- they will play warm-up matches against Namibia and Sri Lanka on 11 and 13 October respectively before heading down to Hobart for three vital games that will decide their future in the competition.

Ireland will play Zimbabwe, Scotland and the West Indies at the Bellerive Oval between 17 and 21 October in one of two Qualifying groups, with the top two teams from each of those joining the eight countries already qualified for the finals phase.

Warriors’ skipper Andy McBrine can consider himself very unlucky not to have made it four from the region- the Donemana all-rounder has done little wrong in 2022- although this was always going to be a difficult process for selectors.

On the flip side it’s fantastic to see Conor get his chance to shine on the biggest stage in world cricket and hopefully the Bready pace bowler and his former clubmate Craig Young will see plenty of action throughout the tournament.

Both players were hampered by injury in the past 12 months so it’s fantastic to see them fully recovered and hopefully sharing the new ball in the green shirt over the coming weeks.

Stephen Doheny’s inclusion is also fully merited after an impressive season for the Warriors and the ‘keeper/batsman will give ‘Balbo’ a quality option at the top of the order.

The tournament will certainly shorten the winter for Irish cricket fans, especially if Ireland can get through their qualifying group, and the best wishes from all North West supporters to the squad as they set out on their journey.