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Ireland Head Coach Ryan Eagleson insists his side “fear nobody” as they head into the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup opener against India next week.

Eagleson, whose side qualified for the tournament after Australia withdrew from the competition, admits Ireland need no motivation after being granted the late reprieve.

“The guys don’t need really need motivation. They’re representing their country in the Under-19 World Cup, potentially playing in front of thousands of people in Bangladesh.

“We’ve got games against Test nations like India and New Zealand and a real crunch match against Nepal, so from a motivation point of view the guys are playing on the world stage so that’s enough to motivate them in itself.”

2012 champions India lie in wait in Ireland’s opening fixture on January 28th, but Eagleson is confident his charges are up to the task, “There’s a lot of talent in this team, and on our day we fear nobody. We’re going out there under no illusions, it’s a going to be a very tough task – we’ve got India and New Zealand.

“But, you know, you’ve got to go out there every day and think you can win a game of cricket; you’ve got to get ten wickets and you can win a game of cricket. So we fear nobody and we’ll go out and try and beat what’s in front of us.”

Ireland will be taking it one match at a time, as Eagleson outlines, “The biggest game we can look at is the first game and that’s against India.…it’s going to be live on TV. It’s going to be a massive occasion for the lads, so (they have to) just go out and enjoy that, and take it one match at a time.”

The World Cup will be the first experience at a full world event for the Ireland squad, although for the coach he has plenty of experience on the world stage having represented Ireland himself on 65 occasions.

“This is what you play cricket for. You’re representing your country on the world stage, and you’re going to be playing India – the population of India is one billion and they are just cricket mad.

“So for the young guys – we’ve got guys here who are 15 and 16 year of age – to go out and play India in a world cup, it doesn’t get any better than that so go out and enjoy it, enjoy the Bangladesh conditions, and you know it’s just an enjoyable experience for them all I think.”

You can follow Ireland’s U19 ICC Cricket World Cup campaign on www.cricketireland.ie and by following Cricket Ireland on Twitter @Irelandcricket, Facebook & Instagram.

Thanks to The Slog Sweep for the video footage.

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