The meeting of the International Cricket Council, to be held at Lord's next week, is undoubtedly a crucial one for the future development and credibility of our game. The truly horrifying flood of details emerging >from the King inquiry in Cape Town has heightened expectations of action on match-fixing, while the imminent elevation of Bangladesh to test status is not a decision anyone who saw them in action in Clontarf or Waringstown in recent years would agree with.

However there is a motion for debate by the ICC which could have important implications for Irish cricket - both within the island and in the strength of teams we compete against for World Cup places. The 1994 ICC Trophy was disfigured by the United Arab Emirates side which beat Kenya in the final, because the UAE Squad of 14 consisted of a dozen Pakistanis and a couple of locals. Several of the 'guests' applied for their passports on the same day but that document was sufficient to allow them to play in the ICC Trophy. The rules were tightened as far as they would go - you now have to be born in a territory to be allowed play for it - but now there is a motion that will return to the passport qualification.

The move has been instigated by Italy, for whom Australian state player Joe Scuderi would be a fine addition. Lancashire have benefited from Scuderi's interest in Italian cricket more than Italy has, thanks to the provisions of Britain's membership of the EU and requirement to open employment to citizens of the union. While Scuderi has not had the most auspicious of introductions to county cricket, Lancashire were glad of the option of having a player with three first-class hundreds and ten years of Sheffield Shield cricket behind him.

Ireland will oppose the motion, fearing that the UAE experience might block our way towards a much-desired World Cup appearance (the Lord's meeting could also decide that the next cup in South Africa will have 14 entrants - the nine test nations, Kenya and Bangladesh, and the top three from Toronto) but it will prevent a couple of would-be Irishmen from qualifying.

Gerard Brophy, a wicketkeeper-batsman who plays state cricket in South Africa with Gauteng, first turned up here in 1995 as professional with Merrion CC. He played a couple of times for South Leinster and with two Irish parents he naturally drew the attention of Mike Hendrick and was selected to play for the Ireland U-23 side against the Irish Universities at College Park. Brophy made an unbeaten hundred but that was the extent of his involvement as ICC rules precluded his playing for Ireland in their competitions. Mr Hendrick may have resembled Jack Charlton in several ways, but he was not able to emulate him in availing of 'the parentage rule'.

This season, having established himself in South African state cricket, Brophy has returned to Ireland as a professional with Cliftonville. He was selected as our one, permitted, overseas player in the NatWest Trophy but failed to impress against Shropshire or in the following games against MCC and was dropped. His ineligibility for ICC events remains but perhaps the Irish selectors have an eye on him should the rules change.

Another player selected -- for Leinster -- on seemingly the same basis is Simon Milton, the Western Australian who is another wicketkeeper-batsman. Milton was pro with Dublin club Railway Union in 1996 and 1997 and returned to Ireland to live in 1999. He is now bar manager in a Dublin hotel owned by a Railway member and captains the club's first XI. He has already scored a hundred and several fifties in club cricket and made his interprovincial début against Munster at College Park. But on what basis Leinster selected him is unsure - he has no recent Irish blood and lost his chance of becoming Irish by residency (240 days in each of five consecutive years) when he returned home after the 1997 season.

A possible bonus on the horizon is Jeremy Bray, the class Australian opening batsman with Phoenix who has scored buckets of runs since he arrived in 1996 (and at Phoenix in 1997). Already this season he has scored five fifties (and a 45) in six innings for a total of 428 runs (average 142.67) and there is little doubt that he could play for Ireland if he were to remain and qualify.

With Ireland's long record of exporting people, any new ICC ruling could prove beneficial. While one would not advocate an FAI-type approach to recruitment, there is no doubt that there must be one or two cricketers in the counties or states that might fit the bill and do a job. We no longer have a taoiseach in the south who flogs passports-of-convenience to all comers, but perhaps a more imaginative approach to what actually constitutes an Irishman could pay cricketing dividends.