CRICKET/C&G Trophy - Ireland v Northamptonshire: James Fitzgerald on how 17-year-old Eoin Morgan can't wait for the school exams to end so he can get down to racking up the runsin earnest for Ireland, Middlesex and, maybe one day, England

Sitting in the hallway of a house in Santry is a brand-new Bellingham & Smith cricket bat that will probably never be used. Most 17-year-olds who have won such a prize would be lovingly oiling it and spending hours knocking it in with a ball at the bottom of a sock. But not Eoin Morgan.

Then again, not many 17-year-olds have already played for their country and boast a significant sponsorship deal with another bat maker. It's probably fair to say the bat itself meant less to Morgan than the reason he won it. Hitting 132 and taking three wickets for seven runs in the final of the Leinster Schools Senior Cup for Catholic University School against High School on Tuesday was satisfying enough for the North County and Middlesex batsman without being handed a plank of English willow for man of the match, too.

But that won't even be the biggest game he plays this week. Tomorrow, Morgan will exchange his CUS colours for the green trim of Ireland as he seeks to write another little bit of history in what is fast becoming an annus mirabilis for him.

Back in February, he represented his country in Bangladesh at the under-19 World Cup. A few weeks ago, he was part of the senior Ireland side that beat Surrey in the C&G Trophy at Castle Avenue. Tomorrow, he will line out again in Clontarf as the national side attempts to beat Northamptonshire and become the first Ireland team to make it to the last eight of the C&G, the FA Cup of cricket.

After that, he has the small matter of fifth-year exams to put behind him before heading over to Lord's where he is under contract with Middlesex County Cricket Club until the end of 2005.

That's not to mention the fact he will most likely line out against Brian Lara's West Indies in Belfast next month (he was just seven, incidentally, when Lara first broke the all-time scoring record with 375 against England at Antigua in 1994), and then nip across with the team to Holland for the European Championships in July.

In other words, when most lads his age are holding down summer jobs in Spar or inter-railing across Europe, he will be finding out about the hard yakka of the full-time professional cricketer.

"All I have ever wanted to do is play cricket," he says in such a way one imagines his school exams are not entering too much into his consciousness this week. "I want to make cricket my career."

For him to do that will mean playing in - and maybe for - England. Like his compatriot Ed Joyce, who is now a constant in the Middlesex middle order, Morgan wants to play at the highest level he can and would dearly love some day to take the field as a Test player for England.

"In the future, if I feel I am good enough to make the England side, I will declare for them. My mother (Olivia) was born there so I am entitled to a British passport and I have no qualms about playing for them.

"Far from taking away from cricket in Ireland, I think it would be better for the game here if an Irishman could play Test cricket.

"If Ed, me, Niall O'Brien (who is in the Kent first team) or someone else played for England, I think it would give Irish cricket a real boost in terms of profile and prominence."

But for the time being, Morgan is more than happy to be playing for Ireland and, despite his youth, he seems to have been well received by the squad.

"They treat me the same as anyone else but when you say you have to go to school the next day, it is a bit strange."

The under-19 trip to Bangladesh was a real eye-opener for him. Being swamped by 10,000 Bangladeshis at the airport, having 9,000 or so at each game and not being allowed to go anywhere without an armed guard was fine, he says, but he drew the line at eating the local fare.

"I don't like spicy food so I brought a big sports bag full of about 50 Pot Noodles. I just lived on that. In the three weeks over there, I lost about two stone. It was crazy over there. They closed a shopping centre just so we could walk around without being mobbed."

It wasn't his first trip away, though. He spent a school term playing in South Africa and also briefly attended Dulwich School in England. Eton College, the alma mater of Test legend Gubby Allen, also attempted to lure him to Windsor but he was having none of it. "Too posh," he says. "They go around in cloaks over there." In any event, he is too fond of CUS, which he describes as a "great school".

Now, Morgan is looking ahead to what he feels could be the dawn of a memorable period for Irish cricket. "I think we have an excellent side this year. We have the potential to win the European Championships and next year qualify for the 2007 World Cup. But it is my immediate aim just to stay in the team and to do what I am going to have to do to score plenty of runs."

Last season, he scored nearly 2,000 of them, including 71 in just his second appearance for the Ireland senior team. And, as the boys from High School found out this week, they don't look like drying up any time soon.