James McCollum is over playing with Gloucestershire this week in England.

The 28 year-old international missed Waringstown's game against Lisburn to turn out for the county's Second XI in their four-day clash against Warwickshire.

McCollum made a fairly successful start, hitting 48 in the first innings of the match.

Former Ireland captain William Porterfield is now on the coaching staff at Gloucestershire, and McCollum's arrival follows Harry Tector's successful first-team appearances.

One of the downsides of Ireland's elevation to Full-Member status was the classification of Irish players as overseas players.

While foolishly seen as a positive initially, there has been a realisation that the closure of the English County 'finishing school' avenue has had  seriously detrimental effect on the development of young players.

The Irish domestic progamme is way short in both volume and standard, meaning many players are thrown in at the deep end, having to learn on the job in the cut-throat world of international cricket.

Ireland's abject failure at the 50 overs World Cup qualifiers brought this starkly home.

While an in-house review currently underway is unlikely to bring about any changes in personnel, it may lead to a rethink of flawed thinking and planning.