DUBLIN \u2013 The Ireland Under-19s Men\u2019s squad has been named ahead of next month\u2019s ICC U19 Men\u2019s Cricket World Cup, co-hosted by Namibia and Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the tournament, the squad will complete an eight-day high-performance camp in Potchefstroom, South Africa, featuring two warm-up fixtures before departing for Namibia.<\/p>\n
The squad is:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Alex Armstrong (CIYMS)
\u2022 Callum Armstrong (Rush)
\u2022 Marko Bates (Muckamore)
\u2022 Sebastian Dijkstra (Merrion)
\u2022 Thomas Ford (CSNI)
\u2022 Samuel Haslett (Bonds Glen)
\u2022 Adam Leckey (CSNI)
\u2022 Febin Manoj (The Hills)
\u2022 Luke Murray (Pembroke)
\u2022 Robert O\u2019Brien (Railway Union)
\u2022 Freddie Ogilby (Bready)
\u2022 Oliver Riley (Pembroke) (captain)
\u2022 James West (CSNI)
\u2022 Bruce Whaley (Railway Union)
\u2022 Reuben Wilson (Clontarf) (vice-captain)<\/p>\n
Non-Travelling Reserves:
\u2022 Peter le Roux (Railway Union), William Shields (Limerick)<\/p>\n
Coaching and Support staff:
\u2022 Peter Johnston (Head Coach), Nigel Jones (Assistant Coach), Albert Van der Merwe (Manager\/Analyst), Stuart Thompson (S&C), Darren Nicol (Physiotherapist), Jess Burgess (Doctor)<\/p>\n
FIXTURES<\/p>\n
Prep Camp (NWU Oval, Potchefstroom; start time 10am):
\u2022 5 January \u2013 North West Colts v Ireland U19
\u2022 7 January \u2013 North West Colts v Ireland U19<\/p>\n
World Cup Warm-Ups (Windhoek; start time 10am):
\u2022 10 January \u2013 West Indies U19 v Ireland U19
\u2022 13 January \u2013 Tanzania U19 v Ireland U19<\/p>\n
World Cup \u2013 Pool Matches (Windhoek; start time 10am):
\u2022 16 January \u2013 Australia U19 v Ireland U19
\u2022 19 January \u2013 Sri Lanka U19 v Ireland U19
\u2022 22 January \u2013 Japan U19 v Ireland U19<\/p>\n
Head Coach Peter Johnston said:<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we prepare for the Under-19s World Cup, we do so with real confidence and ambition. Ireland\u2019s best-ever finishes \u2014 10th in 2022 and 8th in 2024 \u2014 give this group belief and motivation. They show we can compete with the best teams in the world. The group is very well led by the experience of Pace duo Olly Riley (Captain) and Reuben Wilson (Vice Captain).<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m extremely proud of the effort and professionalism the squad has shown since September. They\u2019ve worked through national training weekends, regional skills sessions, and a strong S&C programme. Stuart Thompson has driven big physical improvements across the group, reflected clearly in recent testing. December will be another busy month indoors as we build toward our New Year\u2019s Eve departure.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve also had excellent support from our sport psych and nutrition team, helping the players develop in a rounded, high-performance environment. It\u2019s also been great having senior internationals such as George Dockrell, Gareth Delany, and Lorcan Tucker involved as valuable mentors to this group.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have had three players competing and preparing in Australia this winter. Adam Leckey, Seb Dijkstra and Thomas Ford are in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide respectively and on top of their club commitments are part of established High Performance Programmes out there.<\/p>\n
\u201cA number of players that have been involved in the squad in recent months will be missing due to injury and academic commitments, including Gethin Kelleher, Daniel Murray and Ethan Marshal \u2013 but they remain exciting prospects within our pathway, and we fully expect them to return strongly.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur depth has certainly been tested, however, we saw evidence last season of fringe players coming into the team at different times and performing outstandingly well, so I would expect no different. We\u2019ve also seen two exciting players stepping up from U15\u2019s, both Callum Armstrong and Marco Bates have made big strides this winter.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DUBLIN \u2013 The Ireland Under-19s Men\u2019s squad has been named ahead of next month\u2019s ICC U19 Men\u2019s Cricket…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,118862,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-293962","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-ireland-u-19s-men","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}