Finally, it is best to be training for strength, flexibility and speed. Oh, yes, and watch that diet. The Ballykisteen tournament gets underway at 10.30am on 15 July and the knockout stages will commence at 2pm. To get in on the action contact John Desmond at Ballykisteen Hotel.

THE India v South Africa threematch series will take place in Belfast in June . . . despite an attempt by the England and Wales Cricket Board to muscle in on the event.

Inside Edge understands it took an intervention by Malcolm Speed, chief executive of the International Cricket Council, to force the English to withdraw their claim to host the fixtures.

As the games were due to be held in Stormont, the ECB insisted they had jurisdiction as the ground was in the United Kingdom . . . and therefore some claim on the lucrative TV rights. I understand the Irish Cricket Union were so concerned by the ECB move that they would have switched the games to Dublin at short notice. There would have been a large loss in potential takings as the capacity of Clontarf is less than 4,000, about half of that at the Belfast venue.

The hostile intervention by the ECB could spell the start of a more fractious relationship with our nearest neighbour.

Phil Simmons, too, will need to build better lines of communication with the counties than seem to have been at work before last weekend's Friends Provident game against Kent. Trent Johnston was incandescent with rage after the defeat when he discovered that neither Eoin Morgan (Middlesex) nor Boyd Rankin (Derbyshire) had been used by their counties. "Players have to go off and make a living and the Irish Cricket Union cannot afford to pay them like counties, but to take them and not play them is a disgrace, " Johnston told The Times.

Neither player has appeared in the first XI this week (Rankin took two wickets for Derby's seconds) but they are still prevented from playing for Ireland. With Morgan coming off a poor run of scores, surely a chance to bat at three for Ireland is the best thing for county, country and player? The ICU need to insist players have a clause in their contracts to ensure they play for Ireland on days they are not picked by the county.

It was deeply disappointing to see such a small crowd for the Kent game. That just 500 turned up for the first game of the season was insulting to those that did Ireland proud in the Caribbean. The weather was fine and there were few rival attractions, although a northern watcher tells me the cricket mania sparked by the World Cup was far more muted up there. ICU officials will be nervously checking the queues down at Castle Avenue next Thursday and Sunday when the team play their first games in Dublin.

Phil Simmons seems to have got off on the wrong foot with some of the ICU hierarchy.

The coach selected the team that played Kent last weekend in consultation with Adi Birrell, bypassing the selection process that included provincial reps Matt Dwyer, Ian Johnston and William Wilson. Since then Dwyer and Johnston have resigned, and Simmons picked this weekend's team without a selection meeting "formal or otherwise", according to Johnston, who said he left as he was "surplus to requirements".

Wilson met Simmons "for 30 seconds" at Stormont but has not heard from him since.

Dublin station NEARfm . . . on the new frequency of 90.3fm . . . will be at Castle Avenue on Thursday for the game against Gloucestershire with play . . . and commentary . . .

starting at 10.45am.