CRICKET: We are very much in European Championship mode at this time of year with most of Ireland's national sides competing against the other ICC Associate countries in this part of the world.

We have already seen the Ireland under-23s and under-17s win their tournaments last week, and today the under-19s and under-13s begin their European campaigns in Belfast and Copenhagen respectively.

The under-19s will compete under a new format that gives them a chance to play two-day cricket. In an era when the one-day game is dominating, this exposure to the longer version will benefit them, especially those players who desire to play professionally.

Next week it is the turn of the under-15s and senior men to attempt to cement Ireland's place at the top of the European ladder.

While the senior team has had a tough season to date, being out-performed by most of the English counties in their section of the gruelling nine-match C and G Trophy earlier in the summer, this is a chance for them to restore order in their own minds and get back into the habit of winning.

Their tournament starts next week in Glasgow with a game against Denmark, and they will also take on Scotland and The Netherlands in matches that carry full one-day international status.

With so much going on at this time of year on the youth scene, it is a great opportunity for national coach Adrian Birrell to get a good look at who is coming through the ranks and who might be pushing for selection in the senior team in five or 10 years' time.

The trouble is that Birrell himself won't be on the scene by then, at least not in his current role.

He has decided to step down after the World Cup finals in the West Indies next year, and while the South African will stay on with his family to live in Ireland, if he is involved in Irish cricket at all, it certainly won't be as national coach.

Ideally, the Irish Cricket Union would have appointed his successor by now but it is somewhat encouraging that they have at least got the process in motion.

In the context of an organisation heavy on the blazers of bureaucracy and devoid of a structure conducive to efficient decision-making, the worry is that this process will take some considerable time.

The management committee of the ICU meets tonight in Ballymascanlon House, Dundalk.

The number-one item on the agenda is the appointment of the chief executive.

They have called up to 10 candidates for interviews to take place in the next month, and all things going to plan, the new man or woman will take office early in October, nearly a year after it became known the last chief was leaving and seven months after he actually vacated office.

Number two on the agenda tonight will be the replacement of the national coach.

The aim is to have the new one appointed and in situ by January so that he can hit the ground running for the 2007 C and G Trophy, which gets underway as soon as the team returns from the World Cup.

With only five months until year's end, can the ICU arrange it so that the new coach is here and ready to begin work by the start of January?

If recent form is anything to go by, our New Year's Day hangovers could be a very distant memories by the time our next national coach touches down on these shores.