Last year I was pretty sure this was the weakest team on paper but now I am convinced of it. The good thing about cricket however is that it is a game played on grass not on paper. Were a County Championship ever to take place then this side has enough quality to produce a few wins but lacks the depth required to win the competition.

Fifteen years ago the dominant teams in the Craigavon area, namely Lurgan and Waringstown could have selected a side of Ireland internationals with just one or two Inter-Pro players thrown in for good measure. I think today we are looking at a decline in the area and the trend needs to be reversed for the good of NCU cricket.

Laurelvale avoided relegation from Section 2 by going on a late run in the second half of the season. Their best players are not the youngest and you cannot see their situation improving in the short term. Armagh, the club that produced Ivan Anderson, one of Irelands greatest ever cricketers are now in Section 3 of the NCU. Lurgan who were relegated out of the top flight for the first time in their history have not made a swift return to the top.

By any other standards a club that comes third in the league, reaches a domestic cup final and loses narrowly in the ISC at Donemana, would be pleased with that season. However for Waringstown, this represents a disappointing year. They should have won the Challenge Cup but threw it away and they also should have won at Donemana but threw it away. Despite finishing third in the league they were never in contention in what was one of the weakest NCU top flights in living memory.

Lurgan and Waringstown have very similar problems. Their best players are getting older and cricket slips down the priority list as work and family pressures build up. There has not been sufficient numbers of talented players coming through to plug those gaps.

The other problem is there is no real cricket school in the area to produce players. Because of the educational Dickson plan there is no regular schools cricket until the players reach Lurgan College when they are 15. Any players in the schools system are already well known to the clubs because they produced them. This means talented sportsmen that the schools are so good at finding are slipping through the net. The clubs have become active in recruiting at Primary School level and both have huge numbers of kids involved in summer schools having combined figures of well over 200 each week. But it takes huge commitment to produce quality cricketers for the future from this pool.

This commitment to youth development will eventually pay off but the immediate outlook is not too bright. I would recommend the youth leaders of both clubs pick the phone up and give Noel Dunn of Donemana a ring. All Ireland champions at every age group means they are doing something right!

Picking the side for County Armagh is a lot harder than for other counties because so many of the available players are in Section 2 and so many of the Waringstown team underperformed in 2008 compared to their own high standards. Probably the pick of their bowlers in 2008 was Dave Cheater who is not eligible. Despite all that I've said the team still contains 3 current full internationals (played in 2008) and one former international in Jonathan Bushe who is still Ireland's best keeper. The team is:

Lee Nelson (Waringstown)
Marvin Van Niekerk (Lurgan)
James Hall (Waringstown)
Francois Viljoen (Lurgan)
Kyle McCallan (Waringstown) captain
Craig Irwin (Lurgan)
Jonathan Bushe (Waringstown) wicketkeeper
Peter Hanna (Waringstown)
Simon Harrison (Warinstown)
Gary Kidd (Waringstown)
Stuart Kidd (Waringstown)

12th man
Wayne Pearson (Laurelvale)


There are three changes from 2007. I've brought Stuart Kidd into the team. He has a bit of pace and offers something different for Waringstown. He had a reasonable 2008 and I feel they under bowl him. He is erratic and doesn't fit the normal Waringstown game plan of squeezing teams on the run rate. But his strike rate of a wicket every 28 balls, is better than any of his team-mates.

Lee Nelson has had another excellent year following on from his promising debut season in 2007. Now one of the most consistent players in the team he also has performed for Ireland at underage level having an impact with both bat and ball for U17 and U19. I'm delighted he is travelling to India with the Grasshoppers as it can only be good for his development.

If Marvin Van Niekerk's body was in as good a shape as his batting then Lurgan would have little difficulty in getting promoted. I watched him smash the bowling of top Dutch side Excelsior all round Greenock and the bowling include 2 Netherlands World Cup players. A former CYM and Dublin YMCA player Marvin is Cape Town born and Irish qualified. Nowadays his cricketing ambition is to complete a season injury free.