One of my golf buddies is a psychologist and a master of mind games. He doesn't say a lot, but when he talks people listen, and when he writes, people read.

On the streets it's welcome back Phil Simmons and pack your bags President David Cameron and Co.

Max Sorensen's move north will certainly add strength to the CIYMS team and inadvertently it could help the Northern Knights and the Interprovincial Series if he is selected within his new cricket abode!

Hopefully Waringstown's win in the final of the Irish Senior Cup will inject a fresh impetus into the competition going forward given that it was a rare victory for an NCU club side in the last 20 years.

My biggest disappointment this year was the interprovincial match at Downpatrick because neither team provided much entertainment on the day I attended, promotion of the game was poor, the crowd was non-existent and both captains took the easy option to end the war of austerity rather than gamble on an exciting finish.

With the Twenty20 World Cup Preliminary matches just around the corner it might be a good time to look at Ireland's position and status in this type of cricket.

A serious disconnect between Cricket Ireland and clubs is at the root of poor support for all representative cricket in the north apart from the visits of England.

It seems the England team has finally learned something from their Australian mastersÖthe ignominious art of sledging!

The decision to move on must have posed a huge personal dilemma for the big Trinidadian given the way he has blended comfortably into the Ireland set up over the past eight years.

From the man in the street to elder statesman Sir Everton Weekes there is widespread recognition that Ireland is a formidable opponent these days and competes on the same level.

Ireland's hopes of beating West Indies boosted by exclusion of Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard.

The big talking point in NCU cricket this autumn is not the season passed, but the season coming after CIYMS appear to have scooped the services of Nigel Jones (exCSN) and Johnny Thompson (ex Brigade) with at least one other prominent player in negotiations.

Surely we can now stop talking about non-nationals, foreigners, hired guns, overseas mercenaries and so on in a derogatory way?

It promises to be a challenging year for administrators if the season continues the way it has started in the NCU!

The NCU show their commitment to the future with the release of an impressive Development Plan.

A couple of World Cup warm-up defeats and some critics are throwing the toys out of the pram.

Ireland will have it all to do when they participate in the Nagico Super50 2014 Competition, the regional 50-Overs tournament in West Indies Cricket.

The NCU season may have ended six weeks ago but there's no close season these days. Thanks to television and the Internet our season now lasts 12 months.

Inadvertently Ireland's National Coach Phil Simmons has done more for North-South cricket relations than anyone in our history.