Blarney Army Ireland managed a great draw against Zimbabwe yesterday, mostly due to a wonderful 155no from Jeremy Bray, who is a born and bred Irishman, born and bred in Sydney, Australia that is. But hey ho, Kevin Pieterson is as English as I am. Bray carried his bat through Ireland's innings and seemed to be having a tremendous time at the wicket, he was smiling and grinning all the way through. The Irish fans were a hoot as well, the onlooking Windies locals were somewhat bemused when the match stopped for rain and a giant leprechaun jumped up and led a Guinness fuelled conga line around the stands. Of the rest of the Irish team, only (Irish born) Andrew White did anything worth mentioning with the bat with his total of 28. On the bowling side, born and bred Irishman (see a trend here ?) Andre Botha (born and bred in Johannesburg, South Africa) picked up two wickets, as did born and bred Irishman Trent Johnston (born and bred in Wollongong, Australia). Anyway, well done to the Rest Of The World Team, oh sorry, Ireland I meant to say. In other groups, Canada got off to a slightly better start than they did in the last World Cup when they scored a dismal, record setting 36 against Sri Lanka. This time they scored a more respectable 199 against Kenya, but still lost by 7 wickets. The World Cup starts in earnest today for England with an important match against New Zealand, due to the odd nature of the competition, if we win this we are pretty much guaranteed a semi-final place, I would explain but the rules seem to have been designed just to annoy the casual cricket fans. Let's not even mention power plays. England's fast bowler James Anderson has broken the little finger on his bowling hand, not the best start to our campaign, but about typical for Anderson who has a fine record of returning home injured from major competitions. Here we go then, England to win, Vaughan to get a ton and Monty a five wicket haul.