ON CRICKET:THE SKY Sports cameras were in Canterbury on Monday in search of a talented young left-handed batsman who is expected to make a huge impression in England this summer.

They got it in the end, but it was not the man they came to see as Dubliner Eoin Morgan lit up a grey day with a mesmerising innings of 161 in a Middlesex one-day record score of 322 for five against Kent.

The one they had come to see was Phillip Hughes, the opening batsman, who has stirred the kind of excitement not seen about a young Australian since Shane Warne started to bamboozle batsmen at the start of the 1990s.

Having made a duck in his first Test knock against South Africa in Johannesburg, the 20-year-old went on to score a century in both innings in Durban as Australia wrapped up the series.

Signed by Middlesex for the early part of the summer, Hughes has been a revelation, scoring a century in each of his three County Championship games, including 195 against Surrey at The Oval in his last knock.

With the Ashes looming into view, it made sense for Sky to have a look at a player with a unique technique and fearless approach to batting that could prove a thorn in the side of England later in the summer.

In the end, though, Hughes could manage only 12 runs, while Morgan went on to compile an innings that left the commentators stumped for superlatives to describe its sheer audacity and inventiveness.

For any Irish cricket fan watching, it was certainly a case of pleasure and pain, as with every reverse sweep and improvised flick of the bat Morgan showed just what Ireland have lost and England have gained after the 22-year-old was named in their one-day and World Twenty20 squads at the start of the month.

Morgan’s decision to follow fellow left-hander Ed Joyce into the England set-up came as no surprise, as his ambition to play at Test level had been made clear from the moment he started the qualification process four years ago.

Although it yet again offers a ringing endorsement of the coaching structures now in place here, it’s far from ideal that Ireland’s best players can be cherry-picked by England.

Joyce last played for England at the 2007 World Cup, and if he fails to make it back into the set-up, Ireland will still have to wait until 2011 to pick him again due to the four-year stand-down period between representing a Test-playing nation and an Associate.

The rule was introduced to stop former Test nation players from switching to an Associate, but it is inherently unfair to players born in a non-Test playing nation such as Ireland, where talented young cricketers will always strive to play the game at the highest level.

Cricket Ireland chief executive Warren Deutrom used Morgan’s England call-up to put forward the hope that future generations of young Irish players will get to play Test cricket with the shamrock rather that the three lions on their sweaters.

Deutrom is well aware that ambition faces a long innings through the committee rooms of the International Cricket Council (ICC). But Ireland may gain some success in the meantime, as the ICC is believed to be disposed to the idea of relaxing the stand-down period in the case of Joyce ahead of the 2011 World Cup.

For now, the vast majority of Irish cricket fans will take a huge amount of pride in Morgan making a success of his chance with England in the coming one-day series against West Indies and the Twenty20 World Cup.

He’ll do it all with a distinctive Irish flavour; his unique style of reverse hitting comes easily to him as he changes seamlessly to a hurling grip that has drifted down the generations from a grandfather and great grandfather who both played for Dublin.

If he continues his present form – he top-scored again for Middlesex yesterday with 62 against Warwickshire – an Ashes clash against Hughes is not beyond reason. And what a prospect that would be.