East & Central Africa, which will play as a composite side for the last time at the ICC Trophy in June/July, will ironically be the first Associate member to name its squad for the 24 team event when it does so on Monday.

Selectors of the team drawn from Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia are waiting for a player to confirm his availability for East & Central Africa's swan-song, before it dissolves into separate nations for future regional qualifiers.

Tanzania is expected to be promoted to stand alone Associate membership of the International Cricket Council in June, and E&CA Cricket Cnnference officials expect Zambia to follow before the regional qualifiers for the 2005 ICC Trophy.

Interestingly, EACACC officials have opted not to use the East African Championships as a selection trial for the ICC Trophy, scheduling the quadrangular for September.

Meanwhile, Scotland, Canada and the United Arab Emirates have joined the long list of Associates making overseas trips in preparation for the Trophy, to be played in Toronto, Canada.

The Scots, under the guidance of former England fast bowler Mike Hendrick and ex-Yorkshire batsman, Jim Love, will take a 14-man-squad to Namibia for two weeks in what is primarily a training camp.

The team, which will play two friendlies against Namibia in Windhoek, departs on March 31 and returns on April 14. Scotland will complete its ICC Trophy buildup with one-day matches against three English counties just before leaving for Canada.

Also finetuning their assault in England will be the United Arab Emirates, which will play seven one-day games in two weeks against various opposition.

Emirates Cricket Board official, Mr. Mazhar Khan, said the quality of opposition and the turf wickets made England a better base than Canada.

Meanwhile, the hosts will leave the permufrost of home behind next month, with a visit to Sri Lanka.

The duration of the trip and the quality of the opposition are unknown at this stage.

As you may have read elsewhere, Malaysia, currently receiving tutelage from former Australian coach, Geoff Marsh, will host the Pakistan Under 19s next month.

The visitors will play five matches against various national selections after arriving on April 9.

Ken Rutherford's Irish team has followed Uganda and Denmark to South Africa for pre-season training. It is playing five matches around the Johannesburg region amidst several intense training sessions.

It defeated Wits Tech in Johannesburg by six wickets in its first match last Sunday before losing to Gauteng 'B' by 46 runs yesterday.

Ed Joyce and national captain, Kyle McCallan led the charge in the initial outing, Joyce scoring 87, while McCallan was unbeaten on 67 leading Ireland's reply to Wits' 236-7.

Declan 'Dekker' Curry, the 'Limavady Slaughterman', marked his return from self-imposed exile to top score for the Irish in their loss to Gauteng B.

Curry scored 54 in Ireland's total of 175 which fell short of the home team's 221-8 from its 50 overs.

The addition of the aggressive opener to the Irish squad will partly compensate it for the loss of former captain, and key batsman, Angus Dunlop, through an employment enforced retirement and Jason Molins.

The next edition of BTTW will feature a more indepth report of Ireland's tour, as well as those of Denmark and Uganda.

The 14-man squad for South Africa is: Kyle McCallan, Gordon Cooke, Decker Curry, Peter Davy, Matt Dwyer, Mark Gillespie, Derek Heasley, Dom Joyce, Ed Joyce, Richard McDaid, Paul Mooney, Andy Patterson, Alan Rutherford, Andy White.

Ireland tour to South Africa Itinerary
March 18	Match v Wits Tech, Wanderers Stadium
March 20	Match v Gauteng 'B' (Wanderers Stadium)
March 22	Match v Gauteng Academy (Wanderers Stadium)
March 25	Match v Pirates, Pirates
March 29 	Match v Northerns (Centurion Park)
March 30        Depart for home.

ICC Trophy debutantes, Nepal, will find out in the next few weeks which coach the Asian Cricket Council has assigned to oversee its preparations for the Trophy.

Former Pakistan Test batsman Haroon Rashid coached the Nepalese at the ACC Trophy in the UAE last November, but isn't expected to return due to other coaching commitments.

Unlike most countries, Nepal will not undertake a preparatory tour, however it will play two practice matches in Toronto just prior to the tournament.

Nepal is placed in the Second Division section of the draw.

A fracas over the venue of the annual quadrangular tournament is clouding West Africa's ICC Trophy preparations.

The venue for the tournament, which will act as a series of selection trials for the West African ICC Trophy squad, is rotated between the four members of the West African Cricket Conference, Nigeria, Gambia, Ghana and Sierra Leone.

However the first three are reluctant to travel to Sierra Leone, where security concerns remain following a particularly vicious civil war which ended recently.

The Sierra Leone Cricket Association is keen to enforce its right to host the tournament, claiming the visitors' fears are overstated.

The schedule for the practice matches in Toronto for all teams is below.

Monday, June 25
Canada vs. Ireland
Fiji vs. Namibia
Argentina vs. Italy
Bermuda vs. Nepal
Germany vs. Malaysia

Tuesday, June 26
Ireland vs. Nepal 
Canada vs. Denmark
Fiji vs. Germany
Malaysia vs. Namibia
France vs. Italy

© 2001 CricInfo Ltd