The 21-year-old Muckamore fast bowler was left out of the side for the rain-ruined international after the Ireland's West Indian coach, Phil Simmons, reportededly was unable to contact him.

"It was pretty poor organisation," said Gill, who had learned of his selection on the team via the internet a week before the match was scheduled to take place in Belfast.

Gill, a member of the Ireland team which took part in the Under-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka three years ago, told me yesterday: "I was expecting to be informed where and when to assemble for the game, but I heard nothing. I was at practice at Moylena Monday night when another member of the team 'phoned me from the Le Mans Hotel and said, 'why are you not here'? I replied that nobody had been in touch we me."

Neil said that Ray Daly, the Ireland 'A' manager, then told him that Simmons had made an unsuccessful attempt to make contact with him, after which the player was replaced on the team by Richard Keaveny, a New Zealander who plays for Dublin club Merrion.

"Ray apologised on behalf of Simmons and said that the coach had 'phoned him from Scotland to tell him he couldn't get a contact number for me," added the paceman.

John Doherty, the ICU chairman, has launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Gill's removal from the team.

"I hadn't been bowling very well this season and was surprised to receive a call-up. But my form has improved recently and this would have been an opportunity to press my claims for future international selection," said Gill.

In the event, the match, due to be played at the CSNI ground at Stormont, was washed out without a ball being bowled.

Muckamore won the Twenty20 Ulster Shield for the first time at the weekend by the bowl-out route, after rain wiped out the semi-finals and final of the competition at McComb Park, Dunmurry, on Sunday. At the penultimate stage, the Moylena men edged past Laurelvale 6-5 and then defeated Saintfield by four hits to two in the final.

This Saturday is a closed date, but Muckamore face a busy programme on the following weekend. On the Friday, they will be on the road to Pollock Park for a rearranged match with Lurgan, and 24 hours later Indrajeet Kamtekar leads his team to Strangford Road to play Downpatrick.

Downpatrick, relegated from the top section last year, are having a nightmare season, and they are one place off the foot of the table after winning just twice in eight starts. One of those victories came in the earlier match with Muckamore, when after Brian Baguley missed a century by four runs, the visitors chased down 218 with three wickets and three balls to spare.