Adrian Birrell did not stay long to enjoy the celebrations. By Monday morning Ireland�s National Coach was at Windhoek airport, for a flight to Pretoria where he will spend the next fortnight at the ICC�s Cricket Academy. Eoin Morgan, the precocious teenage batting talent who is one of the three Ireland players at the Academy, was his travelling companion He was allowed 10 days off to help his country win the Inter-Continental Cup.

Although, win or lose, the travelling arrangements were cast in stone - the South Africa flight just happened to leave nine and a half hours before the rest of the Ireland squad left for home, via Frankfurt - it was typical of the quiet, unassuming coach to leave the players to enjoy the limelight.

So, when they flew into Dublin airport on Monday lunchtime - Andre Botha, staying at home for a few weeks and Niall O�Brien, returning to Australia, will also be missing - the squad was leaderless. And make no mistake. Trent Johnston may have been the captain but Birrell was the leader.

Since his appointment in 2002, the South African has formed a squad capable of taking on the world and if he was genuinely disappointed not to have won the ICC Trophy in July - losing in the final to Scotland - there was the ultimate satisfaction in victory over Kenya on Saturday which, literally, puts Ireland top of the world in the associate nations. It was Birrell�s finest hour, in his 50th match.

After his first year in charge, he identified Ireland�s weaknesses as lacking self-belief and the will to win. No more. Every Ireland team he sends out believe they can triumph in every match and after chasing 245 to win Birrell his first major trophy, nothing, but nothing will impossible from now on.

The mental toughness - another factor which was missing three years ago - reached its zenith in the last week as this Ireland team stared down the Kenya bully boys and left them looking more like chumps than champs.

Five of the team that played Nottinghamshire in Birrell�s first match, at Clontarf in May 2002, were in Windhoek and, even more significantly, eight - and it would have been nine but for the unavailability of Botha - played in the last match of his debut season as coach. Only two the 11 that lost to Berkshire in Finchampstead have been jettisoned.

Birrell quickly identified his best team and he has stuck with them. His faith in them is uncompromising and they believe in him. He is not afraid to make the hard decisions - just ask Jason Molins, his captain until two matches ago. But he knew they could do without Jason in Namibia and, not for the first time in four increasingly exciting years, he has been proven spot on.

The players� reward may have come in Namibia but there is so much more ahead and as long as Birrell is in charge, the world really is their oyster.