MCC President Robin Marlar is encouraged by the initial response to his proposal for a match next season between MCC and a Rest of Europe XI, and is confident that it will become reality.

�It�s simply going to happen,� he said this week, ten days after he launched the idea in a speech in Edinburgh.

He acknowledges that there are lots of problems, an already crowded schedule and the question of cost among them, but he�s convinced that the problems are surmountable and that the momentum behind the plan will turn it into reality.

Although the basic idea is clear enough, much remains uncertain: the format of the game, the timing, and the venue.

Marlar would have liked the game to take place at Lords, but that is already out of the question for 2006. He has a sentimental attachment to the idea of playing it in Dublin, where he completed the qualifying process for MCC player membership fifty years ago, even though the ground (College Park) where he played then is no longer used for top-class fixtures.

�For the game to be truly European,� he says, �it ought to be be played somewhere where the euro is the currency.�

Fitting the match into the programme is also not straightforward, and Marlar now thinks that the most likely time would be after the end of July. (The European Championships take place in Glasgow in the first week of August.)

ECC Development Manager Richard Holdsworth is also well aware of the difficulties of making the game happen next season.

�We feel very positive about the idea,� he says, �and it would be a considerable enhancement of our existing development policy. For the players representing Europe it would be another opportunity to play high-level cricket, and it could also be a valuable showcase for European cricket.

�That means, however, that we have to make sure that it�s played in the right place at the right time, and that it�s properly funded.�

Holdsworth does not underestimate the problem of ensuring that contracted county players were released during the busy English season.

�For the game to be really meaningful,� he points out, �you want the best players to be available, and there are enormous practical difficulties associated with that.�

But he does not rule out the possibility that it could go ahead in 2006, and there will be intensive discussions in the next few weeks to try to solve the problems and bring Marlar�s vision of a Rest of Europe XI from the realm of fantasy onto a cricket ground, somewhere in Europe.