It would be a lot jollier still - both in terms of quizzes and poking fun at arcane regulations about who you can represent and when - if he was to score a hatful of runs.

Since many observers think his time is upon us, Joyce might then also have the distinction of being the only man to score hundreds for two different sides in the same World Cup.

He began on the road to the West Indies as the bulwark of Ireland's batting. In the ICC trophy, which is the qualifying competition, he made two hundreds and three fifties. On the very day he made 103 against Bermuda in July 2005, his residential qualification for England was being completed. Five weeks ago, when he scored 107 against Australia in Sydney to transform a beleaguered side into a triumphant one - the nick of time for both individual and team - he was on his way to the Caribbean.

It is, of course, much wiser to adopt a relaxed, laissez faire attitude to who plays for what country since issues of nationhood cause so much grief. But this incidence is still slightly perplexing and Joyce is quite aware of it.

'I wouldn't say it was ridiculous, ' he said in answer to an opinion about the rule which has permitted him to switch horses in mid-stream. 'I would say it was an anomaly.

It's really disappointing that you can play for one team in qualifying and then not play for them in the actual tournament. But it does seem slightly wrong when you make a decision, as I did, to play for England.'

'The first time I pulled on an England shirt it felt weird because I'd been used to the green and blue of Ireland.

But it took literally minutes.'

The National Anthem might have created a tougher conundrum but while he stands he does not especially belt it out. 'It's not an ordeal or anything. I don't think anthems go particularly well with cricket.'

Playing for England saw his first career blip. After making his debut (against Ireland, bizarrely in their first official one-day international) he then damaged ankle ligaments in a Twenty20 match against Sri Lanka. Recalled after that, the transition from county cricket (where he averages nearer 50 than 40) remained unsmooth.

'Every goal in my career I have reached pretty much as I wanted to, ' he said. 'Up until playing for England. That was why it was doubly disappointing that I didn't start the way I wanted to. But then again it made it doubly better when I started to do reasonably well. There's a long way to go yet and I'm a long way from the finished article which takes a huge amount of games.'

The injury against Sri Lanka maybe made me more apprehensive and nervous and I'd actually watched a lot as 12th man so when I got the chance I thought I had to take it. Also I was replacing Marcus Trescothick in those games and that's obviously difficult and people compared me with him and that subconsciously played a little part as well. It all built up.'

It also translated itself into a total of 41 runs in his first five England innings. There was not much scope left for further failure.

'The breakthrough innings if you could call it such was in my opinion the 40-odd I got against New Zealand in Adelaide, ' he said. 'We got hammered in the game, but they bowled well, they were difficult conditions and it felt pretty comfortable and I just thought 'I'm not out of my depth'.

'Not that I actually thought that but you need to feel comfortable, to get a few runs under your belt so that your peers think you're a good player. You want to get a few runs on the board to make yourself feel as though you belong. All I've got to do now is keep going, get more scores.

It's obviously not that easy but I know I can do it now.'