CRICKET/WEEKEND PREVIEW: The Irish Cricket Union's latest representative initiative, the Regional Challenge, gets under way at Pollock Park in Lurgan today when the Northern Cricket Union XI (NCU) takes on the Southern Region XI.

The new competition could make an impact. It will be run through a series of one and two-day matches, with individual awards being made at the close of play, for "champagne moments", catches held by spectators, designated signs around the ground being struck by balls driven by the batsmen, and the like. And, of course, the games will be very much a part of the selection process at national level.

The NCU side's aspirations won't be helped by the enforced absence of Ballymena's international seamer Adrian McCoubrey. He has a strained thigh muscle and his place has gone to Ian Cleland of Woodvale, who admittedly was a prolific wicket-taker last season.

The team, led by Ireland's captain Kyle McCallan, includes three seamers and three slow bowlers, among them the slow left-armer Stephen Donnelly, whose batting ability certainly helped his selection.

The Southern XI line-up is without familiar faces such as those of long-serving stalwarts like Angus Dunlop and Alan Lewis, while Ireland's top batsman Ed Joyce is now plying his trade with Middlesex. Only players in the running for international selection have been named in the three squads competing in the Regional Challenge, hence the absence of Dunlop, et al.

Niall O'Brien, Railway Union's young wicket-keeper, who scored consecutive centuries last weekend against Cork Harlequins and Malahide, may be somewhat unlucky not to have made the team, which goes also for Malahide's Eoin Morgan, one of the most promising young batsmen in the country. Still, it would be difficult to deny Dara Armstrong his place behind the stumps; he has been the outstanding wicket-keeper in Leinster for the past six or seven seasons, with little or no representative recognition for his efforts.

Jeremy Bray of Phoenix, an original selection, made himself unavailable yesterday. Though he played for the Ireland Development team, a question mark hangs over his eligibility, though the regulations are being re-examined in June. North County's John Mooney is promoted, while O'Brien takes over as 12th man.

At least some Northern observers believe that the NCU team is not strong enough for this initial challenge - which should be good news for skipper Jason Molins and his men, aiming to get their campaign away to a winning start.